Vindication

Psalm 10:1,11-18
Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble?...[The wicked] has said in his heart, "God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see." Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, "You will not require an account." But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until You find none. The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations have perished out of His land. Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more.

This precious, not to mention fearless, little boy asked for a photo. Bonus that he didn't request for remuneration in return (sadly, the command of English possessed by the majority of kids I met in Ethiopia was limited to "hi, how are you" and "give me money"). To me, he represented the countless children suffering through the current conflict in South Sudan and elsewhere, be it the DRC, CAR, Syria or the like. It boggles my mind how we can sit down in our comfortable houses and offices everyday, have clean water and reliable electricity on demand 24/7, and usually wrestle with the problem of how to consume our surplus money or food rather than the dilemma of whether to uproot the family and flee into the bush to escape an impending gunfight, in comparison to the millions of souls that find themselves in circumstances that are virtually polar opposites.

What do we do in such a situation? Do we feel bad then promptly forget and move on? Offer a token donation to appease our conscience? Fly over in a valiant attempt to save the world? What would Jesus do? And what would He have us do? It's interesting that God didn't directly answer these questions in the book of Job. All I can do is to continue being faithful, trusting that He always is.

Psalm 94:1-3,5-7,9-11,16-19, 22-23
O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth...how long will the wicked triumph?...They break in pieces Your people, O Lord, and afflict Your heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, "The Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand."...He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile...Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul...But the Lord has been my defence, and my God the rock of my refuge. He has brought on them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness...

Mountains and valleys

Song of Solomon
When I feel the cold of winter
And this cloak of sadness
I need You
All the evil things that shake me
All the words that break me
I need You

Over the mountains
Over the seas
Here, You come running
My Lover, to me

Do not hide me from Your presence
Pull me from these shadows
I need You
Beauty, wrap Your arms around me
Sing Your song of kindness
I need You

Oh, through the valleys
Through the dark of night
Here, You come running
To hold me till it's light

- By Martin Smith from the album God's Great Dance Floor - Movement 3 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMcJvUFEWhk

Song of Solomon 2:8,17 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills...Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved...

The pic was taken en route to Wenchi crater lake while we were at a missions conference two weeks ago in Ethiopia. The scenery there is unlike the rest of the East African countries I've had the privilege of visiting, namely, South Sudan (duh), Uganda, and Kenya. While the aforementioned countries tend to be dry, hot and dusty with savannah plains or scrubland as a rule, the areas we travelled through in Ethiopia had a remarkably different landscape, more akin to certain parts of Europe...most probably owing to its cooler climate and higher altitude (over 2,000m on average). Their history is rather interesting as well; apparently the only African nation not to fall under colonial rule (despite two attempts by Italy et al), it has also lived through two decades of communist governance. Its capital (Addis Ababa) has some of the best roads I've seen, hands down, courtesy of China's expansion into the local construction industry. At any rate, the conference was a tremendous blessing; I got to meet my fellow workers who were evacuated from the other regions for the first time (hopefully not the last!), listen to inspiring stories of great endeavours being carried out elsewhere, and best of all, worship God with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ.

Psalms 133:1 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

May it be so for the nation of South Sudan!

Last patient of 2013

Bah, I wrote a complete blog post that disappeared into cyberspace when my laptop ran out of battery (note to self: get a new one!). Anyway, the pic is of one of my very last patients before we were evacuated. The wee laddie on the left is Solomon (portentous name, I know!) and the two other boys are his older brothers and the baby's his sister, Betty. He's just over a year old while Betty is around three months and still breastfeeding. He came to us severely malnourished and was also found to have malaria and a urinary tract infection. These malnourished children are extra special to me...maybe because they usually spend weeks on end with us (it takes ages to get even one additional kilo onto their wasted frames), or maybe because the stories that form the background to their illness are usually heartrending.

Take Solomon, for example. His mother has been variously described as being mentally unstable or incredibly 'simple' (almost to the level of an intellectual disability). Whatever the explanation, she was obviously not coping with the care of her four children, even if the oldest two lived separately with their father, a policeman rumoured to be an alcoholic and who was clearly not much involved in the lives of his two youngest kids. Worst still, I think he was partially responsible for their absconding two weeks into their admission. I saw him visit for the first time one Saturday morning, and by the next morning, mum, Solomon and Betty had all vanished. Coincidence, much?

After this disappearing act, they returned the next afternoon with Solomon in a moribund state. My heart just dropped when I saw how obtunded he was, weak and listless with his little eyes rolled back in his head. It turned out that his blood sugar level was 1.7mmol/L (the normal range falling in between 4 and 11mmol/L). Mum claimed that he had refused to eat since 2pm the day before (close to 24 hours), which I gravely doubt, considering there are numerous witnesses to how enthusiastically, almost greedily, Solomon obliterates any edible consumable placed in front of him (it's really cute to see him drink from a cup as large as his head)!

Anyway, mum didn't seem to have any kin who could, or would, help. Both Solomon and his sister were often left in the ward by themselves, crying or fretting terribly, while she was outside cooking or washing. The mothers of the other sick kiddoes would go over and pick them up, trying to soothe away their tears. She would then return to much opprobium; even I, who couldn't understand all the angry words the other mothers unleashed on her, could tell that they heavily disapproved. To top it off, baby Betty fell ill with a mild case of viral bronchiolitis, which was unsurprising considering the rash of bubs with bronch that deluged our paediatric ward in the past month (the epidemiological significance of which is uncertain, especially since we're now heading into the dry season). And their mum fell sick with typhoid fever, not once but twice!

Thankfully, we reached the consensus that Solomon was better off having supervised feeds prior to a safe discharge, and hence negotiated with the orphanage under our parent organisation (Harvesters Reaching the Nations) for the family to stay there for a month or so, just to make sure they have enough to eat in the meantime. Please pray for them; the odds are already against them, seeing how over 1 in 10 South Sudanese children die before reaching the age of 5 years (WHO).

Luke 6:20-23 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven..."