I went to the Missionaries of Charity home last week. It is a religious order established in 1950 by Mother Teresa which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. These missionaries are assigned to specific areas to give "Wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor". They care for refugees, ex-prostitutes, the mentally ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, AIDS victims, the aged, and convalescent. They have schools run by volunteers to educate street children, they run soup kitchens, and any other services their community may need. These services are provided to people regardless of their religion or social caste. The Missionaries of Charity home in Freetown consists of a men’s ward, women’s ward and mother/baby ward. Residents have TB, HIV, malaria or some other life threatening disease and are receiving treatment at the center. Sister Josianne is a nurse and holds a medical clinic on Mondays and Fridays at the home, on top of caring for the current residents. Mercy Ships goes once a week to visit and encourage the patients and work alongside the nuns. Last week we took craft projects for them to work on, but my favorite part of the day was just sitting with them. Me and my friend Robyn found a group of mothers and their babies sitting outside the building under some trees and as we sat down and began talking with them we watched them slowly start to trust us and let us into their circle. I was surprised at how different these babies and little children are from our patients at the hospital. They were sick, lethargic and malnourished and very scared of us. They taught us songs in Krio and in return wanted us to tell them stories. Man, when you ask God for opportunities to share your faith, he gives them. We started telling bible stories and it was awesome! Before long our time was up and we had to say goodbye, but what a sweet time we had with them.
It’s been a busy week on the hospital ward. This was our last week of plastic surgery for a while so we had a lot of cases to finish. Dr. Tertious, our plastic surgeon, is going home for several months and will come back at the end of the field service for a second round of surgery. We’ve had 5 weeks of plastic surgery and it was a great success! We had a few complications but the infection rate has been almost nothing compared to previous years. It’s so hard to keep things clean in this environment which makes sterile dressing changes every other day a challenge, but it’s being done. I’ve become quite proficient at the plastic surgery dressing change and have actually enjoyed the wound care. Each patient is a little different and they all require a little creativity in the process. The remaining plastics patients will be with us at least another couple of weeks as their skin grafts continue to heal so I’ll finish up my time here in Africa doing wound care. There are so many individual stories I hope to share one day. Each of these precious patients has come to us with a debilitating problem and most walk away not only healed but with new hope.
Psalms 9:18
"But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish."
Psalm 147:11
"The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."
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