One of the advantages of growing up as a “bush missionary’s
kid” was that I got to drive a big truck at a very young age…similar to many of
you who grew up on the farm or in rural areas of the States. I used to absolutely LOVE it when Dad would
say “Hey Faith, you want to drive?” As
if I would say NO… are you kidding?
I remember being very young the first time that he did it…
maybe 6 or so… I am not sure of the age. He would set me in his lap, put my
hands on the steering wheel, and let me “drive” our big old 4-wheel-drive
truck. There is nothing like it…that
feeling…I couldn’t get enough of it. Do
you remember that feeling? I thought I
was big stuff then.
The reality
of it was that I was not really driving at all.
Oh, my hands were on the steering wheel and I was turning it, but Dad’s
knee was really steering so that I would not get myself into trouble. His foot operated the brake, gas, and
clutch…especially since mine had about 2 feet to grow before there was even
contact with the pedals, much less control.
That is how
I feel being here in Sierra
Leone.
God is steering. He doesn’t
really need me...but He wants me along.
Just for the fun of it, He lets me “steer” (see patients, diagnose them,
and give them medications), but make no mistake, if it were really ME steering
we would have crashed and burned a long time ago. The difference is that now I am grown up
enough (at least for the moment) to know that I am not really steering… I am
just having a great time working with my “Dad”…my Abba.
Here is one
example. On November 27, I had a patient
named Balu come to see me. She is family
of one of our staff here at the Bible
School and has been
seriously sick for over a month. There
is presently no nurse available near her home 70+ miles from here, so she and
her mother scraped together enough money to come here to try and get medical
help. In fact, she was so ill, that a
nurse that came to their village had to give her IV fluids in order to get her
well enough to travel. Balu is about 5
foot 6 or 7 inches, and when I assessed her, she weighed 90.6 pounds. As I listened to her history and assessed her
I (as usual) found myself praying, “Please Lord, show me what to do”. I don’t have any lab testing materials, but I
thought maybe I had found the source of the problem. Got her started on the Medications that I was
able to find that were appropriate, instructed them on how to feed her so that
she could rebuild, and we prayed together.
Yesterday
(December 7) after 7 days of treatment, I reweighed her. She weighs 106 pounds. She has gained 16 pounds in 7 days. In fact, after just two days of treatment,
she was up and walking around, and after three days, started doing little jobs
around the house. It sure seems
miraculous to me, especially when you consider that one of the medicines that I
had her taking was a hefty dose of Flagyl.
If you have ever taken Flagyl, you know that it is very unpleasant. Everything tastes like aluminum foil, and
your stomach is upset and queasy most of the time. There is some debate among Flagyl takers as
to whether or not it is better to just stay sick. J
I am so
blessed to have a daily front row seat, on the lap of my heavenly Dad, to the
miracles that He does in the lives of the people around me. To those of you who support us, in finances
and in prayer… Thank you…from all of us here in Sierra Leone.
