Back to Reality

After two days away (Christmas Day and Boxing Day) Heidi and I thoughtit prudent to made an appearance on the ward today, spending a coupleof hours to round and re-supply, to remember the babies in danger andthe battle for their lives . . . so just an update that little Peter

John and his sister Grace (sounds like a combination out of Pilgrim'sProgress) did NOT run away as feared. He is getting simple first-line treatment for HIV, and she is hanging in there with him, feeding him,and has even been seen smiling. Keep praying for them, there is a long and hard road ahead. 

 And baby Gloria, who in spite of her Christmas-y name I did not expect to live to see the holiday, has actually gained a few grams. Her twin sibling and mother died in the process of birth leaving her in the care of a diminutive grandmother and feisty sister Angela, 

 who suffers from sickle cell disease as well as being a marginally malnourished orphan. What a threesome . . .names that reflect the chorus of the heavens, with lives that scream the injustice and sadness of hell. 

 

 We also had a run on burn patients  this Christmas--the stress of the holidays, the confusion of extra people and extra meals, the carelessness of alcohol, for whatever reason we ended up with three toddlers all severely burned. 

 The smallest burn but the saddest story is Lydia, whose mother at the age of 15 and still in primary school decided to "marry" a student from our secondary school, a boy on the football team and with plans in life. Her father had died, her uncle is a destitute neighbor of ours, so she probably did not feel she had many options. Though they have had two children now, Lydia and a little sister, the boy's family refuses to acknowledge the union, and sent the boy off to A-levelstudies in Fort Portal to try and keep them apart. They do not wantthis girl to hold their son back, so they even refused to have him come home for the holidays. However they have taken Lydia away fromher mother and into their home, after all a descendent is a descendent, the proliferation of which is a key goal of life. Her burn pattern was suspicious for abuse and she showed signs of malnutrition when she came, perhaps reflecting the grandparents'stress that they do not want their investment in their son's education to be subverted by his early marriage to a village girl, perhaps just reflecting that people their age get tired out by 3 year olds. After being passed from grandfather to grandmother to one aunt to another aunt, today I found her caretaker to be her actual biological mother. So we are working with the local Child Welfare Officer to see what can be done.

Reality--the burns and abuse and hunger and incurable viruses? That is the reality we can touch and see. But by faith we hold to the deeper reality of Rev 12, as preached on Christmas, the behind-the- veil glimpse of victory. The dragon flung to earth, angry in his defeat, lashing out but ultimately doomed.