A time to die

Last week was a tough week for the nursing staff.

We lost two patients. 

One was a 5 month old baby that came to the ship a few months ago malnourished. He was born with a cleft lip and palate and not able to suck enough milk. Many of our staff nursed him to weight gain by spoon feeding him formula every day on a feeding program here for many weeks. Once he gained enough weight he had his cleft lip repaired before returning home! His mother (only 17 yrs old) was set-up for follow-up care by a local hospital near her village. We don't know all the details. We know that his mom stopped going to the hospital to pick-up feedings. Days later the social worker went by the house to check-up on the child because she hadn't seen him for days. She was told the baby had died.  He was starved to death.  The social worker expressed the underlying belief in the village that children born with deformities such as this child, are viewed as children of the devil...

The second patient was a diabetic woman who came to the ship with an infected leg that later became septic. We amputated her leg.  But because of her fragile medical state and diabetes she was too sick to recover.  She required one-to-one care post-op.  The worst part was that her family had disowned her and finally came to the ship to see her when they were told by her niece to come pick-up the body (even though she hadn't died yet)!!  I had the privilege of caring for her and showing her love in her last couple days of life...

People don't come here to die.

There is a lot we don't understand. We live in a broken and fallen world.  God's ways are not ours.  But I rest in the comfort that His sovereignty brings, believing that my God knows exactly what He is doing and that He hurts alongside His children.

You are forever safe in His loving arms now, little one. 

Never again will you know hunger or abandonment...