The Past Three Days -- Posted by Laura

So much has happened in the past three days...

|--Jane--|

I was able to share the hope of Jesus with Jane, a young woman from Russia Hospital.

It's hard to find words to explain the transformation that takes place in the life of someone who is lost and separated from God... who has been abandoned by all family and friends... who is ill and knowing that their time here on earth will soon be over.

Lying (often alone) in bed, day after day, week after week, sometimes longer. The pain, physical, emotional, mental...

Once strong and able bodies, now frail and deteriorating... beyond help. And in this place, dying with very little dignity... or value... or honor... and certainly without any legacy at all. Just gone and forgotten.

I shared with Jane that I was here at this very moment in time to be with her and to let her know about Jesus... that she was not alone... that she was not forgotten... that it's never to late to put her trust in Him.

Jane gave her life to Christ and will soon experience the things we talked about at her bedside.

|--Death--|

Dying is something we'll all face one day... but, to experience it this way? I can't even imagine!

After I'm with those (like Jane) who are in an extreme condition, I sometimes wonder what time must be like for them? Being at the end... knowing that they're at the end... and just waiting for it to happen.

Most often they have no one to "process" with or to "remember the good things in life" with. These outcast and abandoned ones have no one to even help them get through the fear of death.

So, I wonder... what's it like for them to be in this situation? Dying for sure... completely alone... with seconds, minutes, hours, days... all passing by with no activity but their own thoughts.

And then I wonder... what will it be like for me, and for those I love, when we are at that place? Will we be at peace? Will we reflect on how we've lived-out our time here? Will we be afraid?

|--Are We Ready?--|

On the way home from the Hospital today we saw three accidents. One likely fatal. A pair of dark blue, warn flip flops lying in the middle of the road and a windshield smashed.

I wonder... Are we ready? Are we ready today to meet our Maker? Whatever it is we believe, that day will come. Just as we are all born, we will all surly die.

Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned (blown it) and fall short of the glory of God."

Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin (blowing it) are death, but the FREE GIFT OF GOD is eternal life with Jesus Christ our Lord."

Revelation 3:20 says "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come into him and stay with him and he with Me."

If we're trying to fill ourselves with anything other than God---sex, porn, drinking, over-eating, drugs... and even "less obvious" ones like success, wealth, fame, admiration, self-sufficiency---in the end... we will always find ourselves coming up empty.

I wonder... could it be that the thing that would fill us, fill us to overflowing, would be the Maker that made us?

John 3:16 says "For God so love the world that He have his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have eternal life with Him."

1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins (wrong doings), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Yesterday, I was able to share this good news, the news that God is waiting for each and every one of us with open arms... That he loves us... that we are valuable... that he knows our name... and that we are never alone.

The message of Jesus is that it doesn't matter what mistakes, or even horrible things we've done in our past... there is hope for all of us... everyone. Everyone can have a place... everyone can belong. When we tell God that we're sorry, God takes our mistakes, and puts them behind us. He tells us that "today is a new day, and our mistakes are forgiven" ... and we move on... Thank you God for your grace and mercy!

|--Arthur--|

Yesterday I was able to share the message of Jesus with a young man named Arthur. Arthur is also in the hospital... in pain... alone... and will be soon coming to his end.

Again, it's hard to describe seeing hopelessness turn into hope... darkness to light... lost to found... but, it happens in an instant!

|--Feebe and Zeddidiah--|

For those of you who know me, you know that I love to meet new people! (Surprise, surprise).

Well... yesterday... I had the great joy of "finding" a woman named Feebe, and her child Zeddidiah in the hospital. Feebe is 30, her son is three... although he looks like he's two (at most)... his legs are bowed... he can't walk or stand because of severe malnutrition... his little ears and nose were oozing from illness... and he was sitting naked on the hospital bed in a puddle of his own urine. I found out later that he is incontinent (never potty trained). The children will often sit for days or longer on the beds of their mothers as they are ill.

His mother is very ill with AIDS and soon Zeddidiah will be an orphan.

I spent some good time with Zeddidiah. We went outside to be in the sun. George (a fantastic local worker here) pumped some water from the well for us and we sat out on the grass in the sun... he in a small basin of water. He seemed to really enjoy the sun, the water, and the crazy mazungu (white person) laughing and playing with him! In a place like this I didn't know I could actually beam with joy...but, if there were such a thing, I think I was "beaming"... after a while I brought him back inside... it was hard to put him back there on that bed... his little naked body... and his mama so ill...

|--The Slums--|

I have seen many, many other patients in the past three days... in hospitals, mud huts, and slums. Wow, the slums!

Our final stop last night was to a slum area where a bulldozer had gone through an area and had knocked down home after home, "business" after business... levelled it all and left the rubble behind. As if it were a playground, children were climbing in, around, and through the piles. I was told that all these structures where knocked down because they were not in the building zone. I don't know about all that, I just wonder how that has impacted so many lively-hoods and lives.

I was thankful to be able to buy clothes for some children in the slums in a mud home that we visited... the need is great, as it is in so much of this area of Kenya.

For the next couple of days the Team is going to get "out of town" to a retreat center... we'll process how we're all doing, rejuvenate a bit, and get back to it when we come back to Kisumu.

xoxo Laura