Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Emotional Roller Coaster!

I thank God for giving me patience today during a difficult, stressful, medical situation.  Today was an emotional roller coaster.  One of my dear friends, an elderly in our ElderCare program, was brought to Mission of Hope, a clinic to the west of Grace Village, in our Kubota.  He has leprosy and has no feeling in his left foot.  The disease has eaten half of his foot, leaving it exposed.  He gets it bandaged every other day by our nurse.  He is full of joy and walks his goats in the field every day.  I have been told he is a living miracle.

This afternoon, I received a text message from Jess.  It was a miracle that I received the text, and many more to follow, because I do not have a phone plan that allows me to receive texts right now.  The text said Ofane, one of our elderly, is at Mission of Hope and needs prayer.  She didn't know what happened to him, but his foot was bleeding excessively, he was passing out, and vomiting.  Mission of Hope is a clinic and was not able to give him the medical care he needed, so we needed to bring him to another hospital.  He was so weak.

During Ofane's emergency, our truck was at another hospital with one of our boys who needed a cast.  Our driver and I left the hospital and traveled swiftly to Mission of Hope.  When I arrived, I saw Ofane slumped in a wheelchair.  He was breathing slowly, his eyes were droopy and closing, and his blood pressure was dangerously low.  We needed to transport him to the other hospital, but the nurses at Mission of Hope said he is too fragile to travel and they need to get an IV in him before he leaves.  They were having great difficulty getting his IV in a vain.  They tried for 45 minutes, with no success.  During this time, he kept drifting off and we were afraid we would lose him.  He was so weak and when he talked he told us he needs to sleep.  We told him "No, pa domi!" (which means, "No sleeping!").  I tried all of my tricks to keep him awake.  I did silly dances, I made goofy animal noises, I told stories about his goats, and I sang to him.  (I noticed the receptionist was laughing at my silly behaviors.  I was quite entertaining!)  Every once in a while his eyes would open and look at me.  He reached out for my hand and said, "Kati".  I told him that I was here with him and that Jesus loved him.  I told him I loved him too.  He slowly started to come back to us.  He started to smile at my silliness.  At this point, we removed his vomit covered shirt.  He sat in the wheelchair still slumped over, but was much more responsive.  The nurses asked us to give him something salty and all we had was a little packet of goldfish crackers.  He ate some.  The nurse asked him if he had Jesus in his heart.  He said, "Poco" (which means "Almost").  He then asked Jesus to live in His heart.  He prayed with Jess and the nurses.

I truly believe Jesus gave him another chance to live.  He was so close to death.  His blood pressure began to rise and we could transport him in the back of our pickup truck.  We wheeled him to our truck.  When he got in the truck bed, he said he didn't have a shirt and needed a shirt if he was going to see the doctor.  In Haiti, one always wears their best clothes to see the doctor.  We didn't have a clean shirt for him, so I gave him mine since I had an extra jacket I could wear.  His brother and our nurse brought him to a different doctor.  The doctor was able to get the IV started and stop his foot from bleeding.

This evening, Ofane was brought back to Grace Village.  I was so happy to see him!  He was walking and singing!  Ofane amazes me!  He was so happy to have Jesus in his heart.  I helped him change his clothes and prepared a bed for him to sleep in.  Our nurse is going to stay with him tonight and monitor him.

When I sat with him tonight (photo below was taken tonight), he was back to his joy-filled self.  He called me, "Ti Ka", which is the nickname he gave me.  He moved his arms in a dancing motion with me.  He sang and praised God for healing him and providing doctors and nurses to care for him.  He sat with alert eyes and a bright spirit.


Lord, thank you for Ofane and for sparing his life 
so his story can be shared to bring you glory.


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