Hope And Healing

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; and forget not his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalms 103:3-5

God delights in using his people to heal the wounds of others. He longs to put us into relationships where we ease each other’s pain and heal each other’s diseases. It is only in community…in sharing our burdens with each other…that true healing can take place. To be healed we must honestly present the pain we feel and be willing to humbly accept what we must do to be healed. We must also be willing to give what another needs in order to be whole again. It has been my joy and privilege to watch this relationship develop between the widows and the doctor who came to help heal them.

In mid June I arrived back home…back in Kampala…back in Uganda. I came back with a medic who wanted to give his time to help the widows heal from their various diseases. He came as a willing servant…ready to pour himself into the treatment of 80 sick widows. He immediately set up a makeshift clinic in a local church. Ruth, one of the widow coordinators, helped translate for him as he examined each lady. She also took him to the homes of the women who were too sick to come to the clinic. The first week the medic was there, he saw women from morning until evening. He would take their hands look compassionately into their eyes and really listen to them. He saw them. He saw their pain and their discomfort. Then he was able to give them the correct medicine to relieve their suffering. The medic was so excited to be able to provide these sick women hope and relief.

One day Ruth took him to see Martha’s granddaughter, Tracy. For the last 6 years Tracey has been unable to walk. She has lived her life on the couch in Martha’s small concrete home. She is unable to even take herself to the bathroom and must wait to be carried. When the medic entered Martha’s home, he was horrified to find that Tracey’s femur bone was protruding from her upper thigh. For about a year now, a severe staff infection has eaten away the skin around the broken bone. This bone had been exposed for a year and she was in constant excruciating pain. However, Tracey never complained nor did she hate the world. She had a smile that lit up the whole room and continued to say, “One day God will heal me.” She saw a doctor, but he sent her home unwilling to treat her, as her grandmother did not have money. The medic just shook his head feeling both intense anger and deep compassion.

The next day, he took Tracey to the government hospital. As they entered the emergency room, he saw a man laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. He had died waiting to be seen by the doctor. The waiting room was full of people in various stages of sickness and distress. The place smelled like death. They waited for hours only to be ignored. Finally, he bribed someone to get Tracey seen. She was taken back and examined by the doctor. Our medic paid for everything…the x ray, the x ray folder, the wheelchair ride, the treatment…everything had a price. They assured him they would give her a strong anti biotic and dress her exposed bone. He left her assuming she would be treated properly.

Later that night, Ruth called to tell the medic that Tracey had been sent home from the hospital. He was furious and frustrated. The next morning he went to Tracey’s house to find out what happened. Tracey told him that they took her in a room grabbed her exposed bone with their hands and broke it off. She said, she screamed and that it was a pain too excruciating for words. Then they gave her the equivalent of Tylenol and a simple antibiotic. The medic felt horrible for leaving her in that butcher’s shop…like he had somehow failed her in her weakest moment. This time he would treat her himself. He purchased some high powered antibiotic and some intense pain killers for her. He visited her almost daily and watched her treatment carefully.

Finally, it came time for the medic to go back home. He had spent a month healing these women…giving them back a feeling of peace and wellness. He had worked tirelessly to improve the health of all 80 women. It was amazing to see them improve and move without pain. As his time to leave approached, the women gathered to thank him for his love for them. They gave testimony after testimony about how God had used him to heal them. He gave all the credit for his service to God. The ladies then asked him what they could do for him. He said that he was apprehensive to reach home as there were some painful things awaiting him there. Immediately, the women rose, put him in the middle of the circle and began earnestly praying in LUgandan, in Luo and in English for his pain. He dropped to his knees and cried. For 10 minutes they pleaded with God to heal his heart. They were earnestly interceding for him…calling down emotional healing for him. After they stopped praying, the doctor was speechless. He said later that he felt God himself reach inside him and begin to heal that painful place of his.

After the meeting he had one more patient he wanted to see. We went to Martha’s house to see Tracey. She was there smiling from ear to ear. He was thrilled to see that the wound had closed completely and that the infection was nearly gone. For the first time in 6 years, Tracey was free of that staff infection. He told her that she would never hurt like that again and that she would now be able to use crutches and to move independently. She laughed and the whole house cheered. Then she gave the medic a letter. The letter thanked him for seeing her not as an invalid, but as a person with great worth and value. She said that she now believes that she has a future. She then said that she didn’t see him as a only a medic, but as a valuable servant of God. Somehow, his own pain lessened as he saw himself in her eyes.

In giving of himself to heal these women, they in return had ushered in the beginning of his own healing. Beautiful, isn’t it?