Swaziland: Day 4
Our third clinic day was truly one of the most critical days for taking care of patients. We had quite a few very severe cases, many of which were taken care of quickly and easily. We cared for people with multiple skin infections and parasitic infections. We even saw a little six-year-old boy who had an early myositis (muscle infection), for whom we gave heat compresses and aggressive antibiotics.
On this day we saw more than 100 patients, but the cases that I remember the most are the ones that I could do the least for with my traditional medicine. It is interesting that back in the United States we often think of medicine as the end-all and cure-all to many of our physical ailments. When we’re sick, we often look for an appointment at a doctor’s office for healing. However, in Africa many people have little money to seek medical care or obtain medication.
In Swaziland they often go to witch doctors, from whom, for a few rands — which could be less than $1 — a patient can get a fancy witch-doctor tonic or spell or even a piece of jewelry to take away the “bad spirits.” They also often allow their diseases to go on for a long time, until they are practically dying, before they actually get any reasonable care.
Because many of the sickest patients have very few choices regarding proper care, it is not surprising that they often come to our Hearts Afire clinics with hopes of real solutions. That is why it is so difficult when we run into some of these cases. Often there really is no traditional medical hope in the form of medicine or surgical treatment to take care of the problem.
However we have one thing which traditional medicine cannot accomplish. What I am talking about is prayer. Typically, we think of prayer as a last resort, when it really should be the first resort. Africa is no different.
I will talk of two particular cases I saw on this third day of our clinic. The first regards a 21-year-old man who for the last year had developed increasing weakness of his legs with great difficulty ambulating, necessitating a cane and the help of another person to hold him up. He had severe spasticity of his legs and it was quite obvious that he seemed to be getting worse. I have seen a few cases of this in my lifetime and I believe this condition is consistent with the diagnosis of tropical spastic paraparesis, which is caused by a virus that hides away in the body, oftentimes in the spinal fluid, which can produce the condition we see in this young man.
Unfortunately there is no real good treatment for this. However we know that the one thing that we can certainly offer him is prayer. We can also have him plugged into the system at the church to help him with other basic needs. Therefore we did both of these things and we believe that he has been healed. This is a perfect case scenario where we feel totally helpless, yet we know we serve a great God and he hears the cry of his children. After rededicating his life, this patient had renewed hope and understanding that God is truly the divine healer.
The next case regards a 9-year-old girl who came into the clinic with severe scoliosis of the spine. This condition occurs when the spinal bones grow in an incorrect manner, causing deformity. This causes significant pain to the patient, who typically cannot walk straight. Their back and spinal curves create the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” effect. However this was her special day. Although I did not have neurosurgeons or metal rods to re-create her spine, I did have our great Lord, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He can heal where man cannot.
Please keep this young girl, Marie, in your prayers and thank the Lord for her healing. Her case is important to me because while I was fasting and praying the week before this trip, I had this vision of a female coming into the clinic with severe scoliosis and this hunchback condition. I saw this female get healed. I believe this vision was given to me for God’s purpose and for this particular patient. During that entire week that we were in Swaziland I saw no other case except this one appearing like my vision. Therefore we believe that, according to Mark 11:24, we have what we prayed for.
I believe that miracles occur at the time that we pray for them, even if we do not see the results of the prayer immediately. I want to tell you about a case that we saw during our last trip to Haiti. Many of you recall that I wrote about the young Haitian who suffered an accident and had a skull fracture. At that time he was brought in comatose. We resuscitated him and gave him IV fluids and antibiotics. We also prayed for him and believed that he was healed, despite the obvious visual appearance that was quite severe. After treatment the patient was taken home but we never got to see the final results of our treatment, but especially our prayer. Let me tell you that the young man would have normally suffered permanent damage, but more than likely death from the head trauma and intracranial bleeding he suffered. Well, guess what? We heard from the missionaries in Haiti about a month ago and they let us know that the young man walked into the clinic on his own with complete physical and mental abilities normalized. He was completely healed! We serve a great and powerful God! Let us never forget how important prayer is at all times!
Back to this particular day: it was a blessing for all of us because today we worked in Macabeni carepoint center. This center was adopted by a church in Sarasota, which provided the funding to build this center, which will manage more than 200 children. Here they will be fed, educated and taught the word of God. This carepoint center was just built and was being painted while we were there.
The doors to the Macabeni center were opened the day we arrived. Today we fed more than 200 children and provided de-worming medicine to all. In addition we’ve provided the teachers with vitamins to give the children daily with their meals. These children are extremely poor and many have no family and are being taken care of by neighbors. This center will help to provide for all these children. Many of these children gave their life to Christ during this day. We had more than 100 people accept Christ. We gave so much candy and balls, including our J316 soccer balls.
The fact that we were there to help – not just for the short term, but for the long haul due to the work of Pastor La’Salette – allowed everyone there to be overjoyed. This is where the assistance of multiple organizations working together benefits everyone. By Hearts Afire partnering with a church in Swaziland and coming together means that so many more children will be properly taken care of, fed, clothed, educated, de-wormed, and loved.
When you see these children play, you see the fact that for the first time they were actually allowed to be children. Very often in this part of the world we see that these children grow up much too quickly. The 5-year-old is often carrying the 2-year-old on his back and when you see their faces they typically are not smiling. The young children often appear to have the weight of the world on their faces. Therefore I am happy to report that more than 200 more children will have their pain eased from them by the love and support of two churches and our organization’s donors, who continue to help us do the work of the Lord throughout the world.
Heavy, heavy, heavy, but definitely a day with awesome results! Now off to the beautiful oasis of Pastor La’Salette’s home, where I am sure we’ve got some new delicacies to taste, including ox tail stew, or perhaps wild boar steaks, and if we are really good, impala shish kebabs. Well, you get my drift. After all TIA (this is Africa)!
