My dear friends and family,
Do you ever feel like you are barely treading water when it comes to life? Like, you don’t even try to get ahead anymore, you’re just trying not to drown. The past few weeks have been that way for me. I’ve struggled with communication with my teammates, struggled to deal with my workload and all my responsibilities here, struggled to get out of bed early enough to spend 15 minutes with God before starting the day and struggled to continue to accept God’s sovereignty. It’s not easy to see children suffer from malnutrition but it’s so exciting to see them recover and smile at you. It’s not easy to see and talk to people who have heard the Gospel preached for years yet continue to reject the Truth but it’s so wonderful to see “Just One More Soul” come to faith in the Ultimate Healer. It’s hard to be away from home and family but great to know they are always praying for you and sending lots of encouragement your way.
So you see, I’m treading water right now, bobbing up and down with the waves and the effort of my arms and legs. But you know, after a while, your arms and legs get tired and you’re forced to do the “dead man’s float” for a while. When I do the “dead man’s float” I feel really vulnerable and open. I can no longer monitor my surroundings, all I can do is stare into the sky. From that perspective, however, I’ve got a great, full-on view of God. I’ve given up trying to control the effect of the waves on me and have left myself open to attack, or comfort.
When I open my Bible, I don’t look for specific answers to my questions. I’ve been working on reading through the whole Bible and looking for lessons in whatever book I’m in. I recently read through the Gospels and Acts and really enjoyed drawing comfort and lessons from the words of Christ Himself. I’ve also been reading the devotional called “Jesus Calling” written by a former missionary and John 16:33 was one of the reference verses today. As I dwelt on this verse earlier I realized that despite the waves and hard times, I have possessed a peace that I didn’t have a few years ago. It didn’t make the situations any easier but I had the presence of mind to process and accept the situations and turn glory back to God in the end.
The past 3 weeks I’ve been working on the ward again while the other nurse that mainly works there is on vacation. So I’ve had lots of opportunities to take pictures of my little friends. In all the pictures there's tape on their little faces. This is there to keep the tube from their nose to their stomach in place. For some reason, some of the kids just don’t like to drink the therapeutic milk we provide for them so we have to put it through their tube. This is fine as long as they do eat the therapeutic food we send home with them. If they lose weight at home, they have to come back and I have to put their tube back in until they gain weight again. Sometimes we have kids admitted 2 or 3 times because they fail to eat enough at home to keep up their weight. As with other chronic diseases, the more times they have to be admitted, the less likely they will pull out of malnutrition and the mortality rate increases. I did a count of how many children have been admitted for malnutrition and how many have passed while in our care. 135 children have been admitted since February and 8 have passed away while in our care. Of these 8, 6 were children of HIV positive mothers and 4 had been admitted 3 times. It’s heartbreaking to fight so hard for these kids to get better and then lose them in the end. But this is how I learn to educate the caregivers that it is so important to force the child to eat even when they don’t want to and to bring them to the clinic as soon as they have a fever or start vomiting or having diarrhea. Early treatment is the best treatment and that goes for whatever. So yes, here’s my plug to all of you, go for regular check-ups and take care of yourself before it’s too late!
As for my other ministry outlets, I’ve had to step back from teaching Sunday School so often. I spend a lot of energy in other areas and I’m not as excited about Sunday School as I was in the beginning and it’s not fair to do something half-hearted. I still teach once every 6 weeks and enjoy when I can get the class to interact with me but it’s frustrating when they seem uninterested. I still spend a lot of time with the youth group even though many are away for school and it is now mostly boys that are around and come on a regular basis. We continue to visit and encourage one another and other believers in the village.
Please pray for our station. We are in desperate need of long termers and doctors. There has been a decrease in inquiries about coming to the field because of Ebola fears. The Gambia is still Ebola free but still pray for our protection against this disease. Pray for our clinic chaplains who preach to the patients every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They are hoping to purchase a speaker and microphone or something similar in order to be heard over the din of noise in our waiting hall, providing we can raise the funds. Let me know if you are interested in more information regarding our chaplains and if you want to help further this ministry.
As Thanksgiving is getting closer and with it the holiday season, I pray you find the important things to be thankful for and truly enjoy time you are blessed with friends and family. I pray that the season is not too stressful and we remember the reason we celebrate in the first place.
I am so incredibly grateful for you all. I hope you know how much you all mean to me. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.
“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!” - John 16:33
In Him,
Bekah