Hope.

This is a guest blog by Eric S. It is his response to our pastor Scott writing us to ask for a story of hope based on our experiences. Enjoy!



The medical team has been saving lives for the last month of people who live 0.5 to 4 hours drive away from medical care. It would be inconceivable for someone in Canada to live that close to medical care and not receive the care that they need but that is the reality for literally millions of people here.  We have encountered numerous children and people dying from preventable, treatable diseases.  We have encountered people who live 10kms from a medical centre but have no money to get there (cost would be about a dollar on a Matoutou for that distance) or money to buy the medicine they need once they are diagnosed, so they wait to see what happens.  Sometimes they get better, sometimes they are crippled for life and sometimes they die. Is it possible for hope to exist here?

Our team, thanks to generous donations in Canada, have helped some of these people have access to life saving health care.  We saw about 2200 people on this trip but what about the thousands we did not see? What now that we are leaving?  People have been begging us to stay, the need is so great here.  This team could spend our entire lives working in this area and still there would be people who would be untouched.  Is there hope here?  Is Jesus here?

Hope seems to grow slowly here from a Canadians' perspective but the Kingdom of God is advancing in this country.  The medical team has had the chance to save lots of lives on this trip, lives that would have been lost are now lives full of hope and potential.  This trip will leave behind a new medical clinic, where staff from the Ministry of Health will come to on a regular basis to check up on people and save more lives. People who had no access to regular medical coverage will now have the ability to see a community health worker whenever they need one.  This trip has inspired the Ministry of Health to carry out regular outings into the bush, to reach more people with live saving health care. Hope is growing here, hope is changing more and more lives.  And where is Jesus in all of this?  Don't worry, he is very much here too.  I never felt his presence as much as the day I saw B love and care for a young boy with cerebral palsy.  Through his actions and words to the boys mother he was able to demonstrate the love of Jesus for that child and for the whole community.  As B smiled and played with the young boy, carrying him home to his mother's house I saw Jesus like I have rarely seen him, smiling through B at the beautiful child.  And even though we could do nothing for the young boy medically speaking, Jesus' presence in that moment brought hope to me, to that child and hopefully to that entire community.