Gadjibian

It was June 1st and it felt as though we had been in Ch+d for months. I'd already fallen in love with the people. I couldn't really say the same for the bugs and the heat yet. I had, however, learned to tolerate them.

We all woke early that morning, ready to work a full day.

We gathered outside of the guest house for breakfast - peanuts, and beignes (French word for doughnuts, although these are more like fried doughballs). We were also serve a very hot, very sugary tea to drink. For those who asked if we lost weight, the answer is no. Do I need to explain why?

After breakfast, we met in the hospital lobby for morning devotions with all the medical teams from the hospital and dispensary then off to work by 8am. Sean also gave a very nice lesson on Typhoid Fever.

Our first stop after devotions was so check up on the children that had been given IV fluids and medications through the nights.

Below are a couple of pictures of Etienne and I checking in the the children. There were 3 boys in the hut that spent the night. One would probably be going home that day. The other two would stay.

This little boy was probably 6 or 7 although he was the size of a 4 year old. His spleen and his liver were enormous. The tenderness in his abdomen was probably an abscess in his liver. He was slightly better at this visit, but was much worse latter that same evening.

I don't like to think about what was going to happen to this little boy.

This is life in Ch*d. It's hard. We prayed with him and his dad. I'm not sure if this is their only child, but I know they came to see the "white doctors" because they were expecting a miracle. I wanted a miracle. I have trouble thinking about times like this. I remember the look in the fathers eyes. He just wanted me to say it was all going to be all right, but I couldn't say that. I wrestle with memories like this often. It's part of what drives me to go back. Helping them understand that G+d loves them and values them - especially the children, would help them see that seeking help for the diseases that caused this little boy to be so gravely ill, could be prevented or at the very least treated if they had placed some value on seeking health care earlier in the disease. Of course making good health care available is the beginning. I am impressed by the work that the whole health care team in Ch=d is doing with the resources they have available to them. They are light years ahead of any kind of facility the government has available to their people.

This woman and her husband and child are from the Fulani Tribe. These people are nomads who have travelled from the northern deserts of Africa, looking for greener pastures for their cattle. When you see their villages you see their houses are very different from the normal Ch+dian style houses. They are much less permanent structures.

If you look at their faces and body structure carefully you can see a difference in their features. They have a smaller bone structure and have finer facial features.




The picture below is the left leg of a woman who had what I think was probably a chronic case of elephantiasis. The woman thought she had had this swelling for over 5 years. There is a parasite that can cause this to happen. Unfortunately she did not seek treatment for this when it began.

Etienne seized the moment to discuss with the woman that although G=d may not choose to heal her of what she felt was an embarrassment, she could choose to accept this and use it as an opportunity to show others how G=d could give her joy in her life despite deformity. He asked if he could pr*y with her, and she accepted.

Etienne has a gift. He is able to relate to people in a way that they listen to him. They may not always be "happy" with what he says, but he was able to speak to them about sp^ritual matters because he was able to relate to them from a cultural as well as Chr+stian perspective. Sometimes we disagreed about a few things. He's a little stuck in his ways, but he was willing to listen and learn from me, but he was also a great teacher. I learned a lot from him.

At lunch that day, the chef de canton (chief of the township/village) stopped in to visit. Every where we went it was customary for the chef to visit. He always brought requests for us. In this culture it would be rude for the white people not to provide what was being requested. Kirk was always good at saying we would take that under consideration - neither promising nor denying the request.

It was this man who was responsible for donating more the more than 100 acres that the hospital, dispensary and guest house now occupy. So when this man speaks, we obviously listen carefully. He had several requests, but he addressed one of them specifically to me - He looked me in the eye and asked me to stay here and help teach the value of healthy pregnancies and babies. When a man in this culture, especially a man of his authority, speaks of valuing women and children, it's amazing. His words and the look in his eyes come into my mind every time I think about or pr&y for the people in Ch^d. How can I not go back?

I struggle with asking G^d for miracles and not seeing it happen like I'd asked while at the same time knowing He has it all under control and his answers may not come while I am there to see it or in the way I'd pr+yed.

I read a quote from Jim Cymbala's book "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" that I had written in my Bi^ble. "I'm well aware that we don't get everything we ask for, we have to ask according to G+d's will.

But let us not use theological dodges to awoid the fact that we often go without things G^d wants us to have right now, today, becuase we fail to ask. Too seldom do we get honest enough to admit, 'Lord, I can't handle this alone. I've just hit the wall for the thirty-second time and I need you.'

G=d has chosen prayer as his channel of blessing. He has spread a table for us with every kind of wisdom, grace and strength because he know exactly what we need. But the only way we can get to it is to pull up to the table and taste and see that the L*rd is good. Pulling up to that table is called the pr+yer of faith. In other words, He doesn't tell us to pray because he wants to impose some sort of regimen on us... He says to us 'Pr*y because I have all kinds of things for you, and when you ask, you will receive. I have all this grace and you live with scarcity. Come to me all you who labor. Why are you so rushed? Where are you running now? Everything you need, I have'

In my my journal that night I wrote -" G=d is awesome. Even though no one here is free from suffering or hardship, in fact some seem to suffer more than others, we can still count on Him to have all of this in control. G+d is definitely present here in Ch^d. There is just a lot of work to do to try to alleviate or minimize some of the unnecessary suffering that's going on. I'm thankful for all that G^d is teaching me and is going to teach me." He truly has given us everything we need. We just need to choose to take it and use it.