Broken

"I'm so nauseous. If I pass out, just carry me to the car. Don't let these doctors touch me... Why did we not bring lollipops for these children?" I whisper this to Tyler as we take in the cries and screams and heat and smells and flies engulfing us in the building full of people with broken bones. The broken ones.

It is 100-something degrees outside, and the windows are cracked just a bit. I try not to wipe the sweat from my face with my hand because there is no such thing as hand sanitizer here, and it is bad manners not to shake everyone's hand upon arrival.

Had I not known I was in a hospital, I might think it was a torture chamber. Three little boys with broken femurs lay naked in cribs with their feet tied to hang in the air. They don't place rods in these bones to hold them together during the healing process. Nope. They hang their feet for weeks to keep the muscles from pulling the bones apart. Our friend Margaret's almost two year old boy, Isaac, fell off a bed, and they are the ones in the hospital we came to visit. She has been there with him for three weeks now, sleeping in the crib with him - the crib with the rock under one leg to keep it stable - while her other two small sons sleep on a plastic sheet/mat on the concrete floor. She sets fire and cooks her meals outside each day. She bathes and washes her laundry there at the hospital too. She is a short little lady who complains about nothing. Maybe you remember my post about her leading her children in a Bible study? She is an amazing sister in Christ who has endured much.

This picture was taken before she removed the bandages.
There is no way to capture the awfulness of this place in a picture.
Blood smeared on the walls... ugh... awful.

A few minutes after we arrived, the doctors came through doing their every-other-day rounds. It was assembly line style. One nurse had a cart with paperwork. Another had the gauze and iodine and utensils they've used on every other patient. Another nurse had something else. By the third nurse, I lost all concentration. I could get more graphic, but I'll leave that aside. I'll just say there were seriously awful medical practices. Truly, I knew I needed to pray... but I didn't even know how or what to pray in this situation. I've never felt so helpless. And this was only one room in one hospital... We can't save the world, I know, but some desperate days I would like to.

The same bandages had been on Isaac's legs for three weeks. Sores and infection were beginning to set in, so Margaret took the liberty to remove the bandages. The doctor was so upset with Margaret for removing those bandages, he refused to care for the boy and walked right past. I praise God He sent us when He did.

After praying for the screaming boy next to Isaac who endured the doctor's torture, and his mom who was also crying in desperation, Tyler sent our friend Julius (we always bring Ugandans with us) to demand the doctor come take care of Isaac. After searching for the doctor, Julius found someone who promised the doctor would be back in the evening to care for Isaac.

Tyler returned to the hospital that evening with gauze, peroxide, Neosporin, and bandages because his assumptions were right. The doctor never came back.

Our friend Matt
helping Margaret transport Isaac.

They discharged the boy this morning, and said he was ready to go home. Tyler took Isaac to a much better clinic and got an X-ray. Sure enough. The bone is still broken, and he needs to hang his legs for another week or so. Tyler is worked with the doctors in this clinic to make up a new contraption for this little man to recover in.

An awesome part about all of this was the morning before we left for the hospital, Tyler was leading devotions and teaching on Matthew 22.

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 

and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Matthew 22:36-39

Margaret's three sons.

No flies. Really clean.
Tyler worked with the doctor, a welder, and
a carpenter to make the new contraption to be effective
and reasonably comfortable.

Our neighbor happened to have a need that day. This beautiful group of believers we serve alongside wanted to show her some love. Together, they came up with beans, charcoal, mandazis (fried bread), and some money for Margaret. What a blessing it is to give. I think this may be the first time I've seen them give like this... and out of their lack, which convicts me greatly. God is working in these hearts here.

It is so easy to lose sight on the simplicity of the will of God. He just wants us to love Him with every aspect of our lives, and love our neighbor like we want to be loved. If I were stranded and hungry in a hospital with my kids, I would want someone to come and sit and pray and talk with me and bring me some lunch and take care of my baby's broken leg. And you know what? We were inconvenienced. And we didn't eat our own lunch (which consisted of water and a handful of peanuts) until 3:00. It's worth it to be inconvenienced and go without when we are able to bless someone with a greater need.

Truthfully though, sometimes it's easier to do a good deed than it is to surrender a well-loved sin that is poisoning my own heart. The heart I want Jesus to be King over and dwell in. The thoughts I find myself thinking sometimes and the destructive words that tear down the ones I love most are a cancerous mass needing to be removed by the Greatest Physician. By bringing these to Jesus in repentance, I am doing a greater thing than feeding the poor or caring for the sick. I am loving my God with all of my heart, soul, and mind.

...for when I am weak, then am I strong.

2 Corinthians 12:10

....because my weakness keeps me from wandering too far from the Source of all my strength.