Every week, on a Thursday and a Sunday, we meet as a whole crew to have fellowship together and to have some bible teaching. There's also a ward service every sunday morning with all the patients from the three wards; it's great to see everyone together and a real reminder of the unity we have in the body of Christ.
The wards are packed on a normal day; with patients and caregivers on and below the beds. To fit the 40 people that we fit there we have them on the beds and then the relatives (and often more of their small children) sleep on mattresses underneath! This can make ward rounds and examining patients quite difficult as you can inadvertently kick or tread on them as you go round!
Ward services are led by the patient life team; who do an amazing job on a daily basis with leading time with the patients both in the morning and evenings during the week. They also act as a constant presence on the ward getting to know the patients and their backgrounds and lives as well as difficult home situations. This has involved speaking about addictions to alcohol, bereavements and grief as well as involvement in voodoo and issues surrounding that.
In fact the man this refers too was a patient I saw in admissions yesterday. He is a farmer from the north of the country and is married with 6 children. He is suffering with a very large hernia, which extends to his knee, and since this has been unable to work and support his family because of the pain this causes. He stopped going to church as felt his prayers were being unanswered for help and support and found that people in church were mocking him for his deformity, which is visible through clothes. He still sent the rest of his family but ended up turning to voodoo, animal sacrifices and alcohol in a last attempt for help and to ease the physical pain he was suffering. As part of the history we take in admissions the question about alcohol consumption is always raised and he sheepishly told me he drank a lot and has done for a couple of years. He volunteered the rest of the information as we sat with him and he told us how he was a sinner in need of rescuing. We were able to explain the gospel once again to him and prayed with him and he excitingly asked us for a french bible so he could read again on the ward. Praise God and please be praying for him and his family, as he first undergoes the operation and then as he returns to his family.
The ward service run by the patient life team was just a great reminder for the fact of who is doing the real work here; it's not the medical teams but it's those who are administering spiritual need to the patients on a daily basis. Ultimately it is God's work; Psalm 115 v 1.
As so often happens God brought together a number of things, which I had been thinking about on the sunday meeting. We were asked the question 'What is our message?' and it just underlined the importance of keeping the news of the gospel central amongst all the hospital happenings. We are here to be the hands and feet of Jesus in all situations, whether with patients, fellow crew or day workers. Has been a frustrating few weeks in some ways; I had had images of just being able to work all the time and serve God in that way. However have come to realise that this was me being proud; God has plans beyond what I can see and it may be that it's a friendship, a conversation or simply a good morning and the handshake (which I'm still not quite up to speed with!) which I'm here for.
The below quote is from one of our Togolese day workers, who we partner with..
This is a powerful mission.
Imagine you, you are sick
you are hopeless
you have no money
and then somebody says,
'come we will heal you'
Then you live on board with everybody else
and you see the way they love each other
and the way they love you
This is powerful
This is the gospel!
The service ended with a daily question to challenge us...
If people had your life and they were asked the question, Has Jesus risen from the dead? How would they answer? Has he?
No comments:
Post a Comment