At 9:30 pm last night, just as I was going to bed, I heard a noise on the front porch. Abby heard it too and called me to say that she thought someone was on the front porch. Sure enough, there stood Mr. Y.Y. leaning against the wall. He pulled up his pant leg to show me his wound - a gash that was about 4 inches long and gaping about 3 inches wide. It was so deep that I could see the layers of skin, fatty tissue, muscle, and even ligaments. Fortunately, I have one suture needle with thread, that I had hoped not to need. Praise God, he provides! I called Roy to help me, cleaned the wound as best I could, slathered it full of antibiotic ointment, and began to stitch it shut. Now, I enjoyed our suture lab in my tropical medicine course, but my little pig foot that I sutured had neat cleanly sliced incisions, with no blood. They were not gaping, and did not complain at the total lack of anesthetic. Poor Mr. Y.Y. had to endure having his painful gaping wound stitched shut without anything to numb it. Roy held his hand and prayed while I stitched by the light of my head lamp in the pitch dark, rainy, night. As I stitched, I kept thinking "they didn't teach us about this in class..." I know that my stitches would not win any prizes. They were not neat and close. I did not bunch the skin up well in order to lessen scarring. I was just desperately trying to keep the wound somewhat closed, and yet at the same time allow for treatment of any potential infection, since I could not clean the wound all that well. I also was trying to make my one and only suture last for the entire wound. I am SO glad God uses the underqualified. He only can make these stitches stay, keep infection out, and allow the muscle to regain it's strength. Please pray for Mr. Y.Y.
Shortly after we went to bed, Roy began to have a bad case of diarrhea and vomiting. I think he was probably up 5 or 6 times in the course of the night with episodes. He began to run a fever, and Abby had been running a fever before bed as well. I am not sure what we are in for here, but I prayed yesterday that God will help me to be willing for HIS plan and not my own. I had realized that so often I tend to come up with good ideas for God to do, and then expectantly wait for Him to carry them out. THAT is NOT submission to God. Submission to God means that I simply obey Him... even if He never uses me for anything... my job is just to OBEY.
Well, here I am...obeying...with God's help...trusting in One who I know is completely able...especially when I am not.