Well, it has been a busy week here in Lake Wobegon! I have found that all the men are still good looking, although a little yellow, all the children are very much above average, but the women are not all that strong (namely me - the rest of them are impressively so!) Let me explain!!
We don't get visitors very often in our neck of the woods so we really enjoyed having the chance to visit with Jan Nickle and her niece on Friday through Saturday. Jan was my 4th-6th grade teacher and now works in Freetown with an organization that helps to prevent human trafficking - a VERY important work. Her niece is visiting for 6 weeks and was a pleasure to meet. Then, on Monday we had the blessing of more company. Richard and Paula Miller and their daughters, Faith and Grace, whom I mentioned in a prior blog, came to stay for a few days. What a blessing that was! They are such an encouragement to us and blessed us in so many ways. The kids had an absolute blast together and can't wait till they come again!!! However, Roy started running a fever on Monday and we thought he was just catching a cold. On Tuesday it became apparent that such was not the case - it was malaria. For those of you who are unfamiliar with malaria, it tends to hit every person differently. Textbooks will present it as fever and severe chills and joint aches. Roy had all of that, including the temps of 104 +. In addition to that however, it can cause vomiting and stomach pain as well as jaundice. Roy decided to opt for the complete african experience and had it all. Now that didn't worry me too much. I got him on medication for treatment right away and also started him immediately on Oral Rehydration Solution ( something other parts of the world use when IV fluids are not available to treat dehydration) However, I started to worry when by Saturday he was still running fevers that thrived in spite of ibuprofen, and could hardly drink due to the stomach pain. In fact, he threw up again. I started to look for ways to get him to Freetown to a hospital if he did not improve by morning. During the middle of all of this, a woman about 2 miles away via a bush path was injured when a tree fell down on top of her during a storm. I walked with one of our pastors to try and help because the tree broke her right upper arm, her left femur, and severely bruised her ribs and her right lower leg. Having seen the tree, I am amazed that she is even alive. The tree had to be at least 3 feet in diameter. Praise God! However, I can't tell you how insufficient I felt. The books just don't cover this sort of stuff. We walked to the hut, in the rain, stopping to kill a snake on the way and seeing several others. When we arrived, we had to wait a little bit while the men in the family finished their islamic prayers. Then they led us into a hut that was completely dark. In fact, I couldn't even tell where the walls were. The woman was lying on the floor and the only light I had with which to assess her was a flashlight that was almost out of batteries. They had applied "native medicine", but after applying it, her arm had swollen more and her hand was completely cold and had lost quite a bit of it's sensation. In fact, she had two large blisters about the size of a silver dollar on her forearm because they had been trying to warm her by the fire and she had not felt that it was too hot. I asked them to unwrap it and was relieved when her circulation returned. I repositioned her arm and as I did the bones grated against each other. She groaned - and that was the only time during the examination that she cried out at all. I then had them reapply their medicine and I put a splint on over top of that wrapping the covering over the blisters so as to keep them from bursting. Her leg still had good circulation. I instructed them on how to check her circulation and left her some Motrin. I prayed for her before I left, with their permission of course. But, I left thinking "how do you prepare for something like this?" How do you examine a person well, especially when you don't have the experience already for something like this, in a pitch black room with five people helping you hold a splint in place. Let's be honest - there are only so many things that you can fix with motrin and bandaids. I felt so helpless to help her, so helpless to help my husband, and helpless is exactly where God wanted me. See, in the middle of all this, the generator absolutely refused to work and the batteries to our phones all died except one(that one was on it's last leg and beeping at me) and so did the computer batteries. I told God that he needed to make the generator start so that I could call someone for advice and help as to what hospital to go to and to contact someone to drive us - and then I heard it... that still small voice that said "Faith, I'm not going to. You don't need to ask anyone else what to do... I WANT you to only have me...and I want you to find out that it is enough."
WOW!
Sure enough, the generator didn't start.
I realized that I only THOUGHT I was depending on God - but secretly, I thought I was sufficient and I could do it! Why do we spend so much time trying to be self sufficient - yes, to a certain extent it is commendable. But, wouldn't it be more commendable to be DEpendent on God. When I am weak, then HE is strong. Yes, I need to the best that I can and be diligent and not lazy. But, I need to do it with the understanding that it will never be enough and even what I do, I can only do because HE enables me to. I am nothing without HIM.
So, that is today's sermon folks (at least to me) and that is the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are dependent, all the men are good looking (albeit still yellow), and all God's children are above average as long as they remain rooted in HIM