Imagine

Imagine being 72. Imagine fracturing the neck of your femur in a car accident at that age. The hip joint (at the top of your femur) is a ball-in-socket joint. Imagine the ball is still in the socket and the rest of your leg is sitting up above the socket and somewhat out to the side. In Canada, if this were to happen to you, you would be air lifted to a trauma centre due to the high risk of bleeding from the femoral artery presenting imminent death. Now, imagine after your accident, you simply return home.....because you do not have any money to go to a hospital. You lie at home for weeks until you can endure the pain enough to start using the crutches that someone was kind enough to get for you. Now imagine 7 months later with your femur still detached from the head, still in pain, you are sent by kind missionaries to the "bone doctor" from Canada to see if she can find out what is wrong with your leg.

This is the story of Louis Lexius. He is a walking miracle.

God sent him missionaries from one mission to feed him and refer him to our clinic. God sent him myself who has the connections to find him the location to provide him with free surgery. And God sent him the surgeon at another mission who is willing to take on his case. Due to the body of Christ working together, this man will be getting the very difficult surgery he needs on October 4th. It is a beautiful symbiotic relationship that God has provided for this Christian man. Why did he have to go through this? That I do not know, but I do know that through this experience, Louis knows that God has provided, he knows that God is working through relationships. He knows that God is good.

Imagine you are 83 years old. Imagine you are tending your goats and cows. Imagine your mind is not what it used to be and you get lost and find yourself in unfamiliar territory. As you are looking around, you slip and fall at the edge of the ravine. You fall hard. Bouncing off boulders and rocks hitting your head first. As you tumble, the rocks pummel your head and knees. You feel your head splitting open over and over again and then you black out. After some time you awaken to find yourself lying in the ravine and you can't get up. You stare up to the sky wondering what you are going to do next. You are too weak to yell for help. You are thirsty and hungry. Still no one comes. You wait and darkness falls, then light of day, then darkness again, then light...for 3 days you lie in the ravine with no food or water and open wounds all over your body. You ache all over and you have a prickling sensation in your scalp. Finally, your family finds you and takes you to the good clinic a few villages over. When you get there, God has sent you missionary doctors to care for your gapping wounds, rehydrate your body and to remove the countless maggots that have infested your wounds (maggots that consequently saved you from infection) and you wonder if maybe there is a good God after all.

This is the story of Jean Claude. He also, is a walking miracle. He should have died, but God gave him another chance.

As he gets his wounds cleaned daily at our clinic he shows off the little English that he knows, he jokes and laughs. We are flabbergasted that he is in such good spirits after what he has been through. We tell him that God saved him and that we believe He has plans for him in this life yet. He says, "Well I know God but I have not accepted Jesus.....although this is the 4th time I should have died. Maybe I should think more about that."

I am humbled by the strength in these people. I am humbled by their determination and I am humbled that God would use me as an avenue for them to see His light.