Courage

My word for today is courage. Attending the 6:00 AM Haitian worship and prayer service was moving and centering. It was a perfect way to get my heart in line with the Lord's. I left filled with a peace that passes all understanding and ready to serve in anyway the Lord would call for today. Our group spent the morning at a Children's Home for the Sick and Dying Children. Walking through the rooms and seeing all the rows of cribs of babies and the nuns scurrying busily around cleaning, cooking, changing diapers, scolding an errant child and then smiling affectionately at them, patting a baby as they walk by, singing with one, tickling another, changing an IV, encouraging a mother, sweating, always serving, always loving. The courage they have to commit their lives to this kind of service is very humbling. It was a blessing to watch a little boy "choose" my Uncle Al and refuse to be put down the entire time we were there. And to watch my husband play the guitar and sing for the children and than allow them to strum with him which gave them much pleasure. In the afternoon Debbie, Bob and I went to the Wound Clinic. I wasn't sure what to expect. If my stomach could handle what we would encounter. The wounds were indeed grotesque beyond description. A nun quickly trained us in and we immediately were given patients. Praise God, He gave me the courage to do something I wasn't sure I could do. Unwrapping an oozing, gaping, deep leg wound. Scrubbing it with saline solution and putting penicilian powder on it and gauzing and wrapping it again. Bob was next to me and had a man with an abcessed knee the size of a baseball. There were holes on each side of the knee which were oozing infection. The previous doctor had pack the inside of the wound with absorbant gauze and Bob had to pull it out inch by excruciating inch. The man was writhing in pain. Bob was gentle and confident. My patient almost fainted watching and had to leave the room. I went to comfort the man. He squeezed my hand to the point that I thought 3 of my fingers would fall off. I prayed over him and rubbed his back. His brother supported him on the other side and looked between Bob and I with grateful eyes. How the man managed to stay conscious is a mystery to me. Bob and I ended our evening with an elderly woman with a huge abcess in her armpit. While it was lanced and the puss squeezed from it Bob and I supported and comforted her. Her cries pierced my heart. She was shaking and near fainting. We finally layed her on the floor with her head in my lap as I supported her arm in the air and stroked her face. Bob held her other hand offering comfort. The courage these people have to overcome the pain they have to endure each day is unfathomable. The courage they have to let us touch their wounds is beyond my own capacity. They were so grateful for our inexperienced help. It was truly a fullfilling evening. Bob shared tonight that he actually has a very weak stomach and was praying the whole way their trusting Jesus to give him the strenght to deal with what he may face. God is an awesome Father. Not only did he give Bob a steal stomach for this evening but he gave him the worst patient to prove to Bob and the rest of us that HE IS ABLE! He meets our needs. He gives us what we need for each day. He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Isn't our God good?!