“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms,
it means a strong desire to live, taking the form of readiness to die.”
~GK Chesterton~
Well, first off—I never felt like I was going to get speared, so don’t misunderstand this quote–what is dying, is my pride. It’s humorous because the greatest revelation the Lord gave Jewels and I coming to the mission field was that we don’t come to “do great things for God” or “make a difference”. The real reason I came is because I want to fall deeper in love with my Savior. Yet with that as the baseline it’s funny to me that I’m still surprise as I see Him slowly crush my pride. It’s painful, but quite beautiful and freeing at the same time.
I’m not a good bush doctor—I feel like I have little to offer and yet am learning that’s exactly where the Lord wants me. Looking into the eyes of young moms who live a days’ walk from anything, are wearing only animal skins and holding severely malnourished children with various ills—where do you start? The evangelists I was privileged to go with started with village elders and explained we were there to help their bodies and their souls. The verse “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory” has been greatly impressed on my heart. It’s a strange feeling to show up and realize that just your presence alone brings Hope–especially when you feel like you’re just making educated guesses in treatment. But I guess that is the point–it’s not anything in me, but rather Christ in me, which brings the Hope…the Healing. And it doesn’t need to be perfect, coming from a huge teaching center, it’s hard to release the perfectionist mindset and just surrender to the fact you’re going to be wrong a lot and never know what you’re treating a good chunk of the time. The Lord comforted me with the reality that it took me at least 5 years to feel like I was an average to slightly above average doc in the States. Jewels and I are praying the Lord would let us live the majority of our lives in ET…35 more years to go :). So, I hope that the last 30 of those years I’ll be an average to slightly above average bush doc.
The woman in this picture developed what appeared to be a simple eye infection ~ 1 year ago. Her right is now scared shut as a result and the left eye was on the way–please pray the antibiotic eye ointment will cure her and prevent the scarring of her inner eye lid which scarred her other eye. The little one below her, I treated for pneumonia–not sure it was, as later in the visit I learned 3 other people in the village had a pretty good history for TB but please pray restoration over his little body.
The second village we visited we were short on time as we had an hour flight back and have to be on the ground by 6pm. As a result we didn’t have time to treat anyone, but rather just gain permission to come back from the village elders. The pictures are in the slideshow above. I read this “My Utmost for His Highest” this morning…thought I would include it as it seems to be the theme the Lord is teaching me.
He that believeth in Me, … out of him shall flow.… John 7:38.
Jesus did not say—‘he that believeth in Me shall realize the blessing of the fullness of God,’ but—‘he that believeth in Me, out of him shall escape everything he receives.’ Our Lord’s teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts. It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all.
Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest