Screening Day

Over 2,000 people stood in a line that extended several city blocks on the morning of the opening of our screening center in Tamatave, Madagascar. This was the moment that we had spent hours in prayer for, the moment that we had waited and longed for. This was also the moment that most patients never thought that they’d have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you’re poor, it’s hard to think about things that are outside of the necessities of life. I had a conversation recently with one of our crew members who grew up on the streets of Sierra Leone. We were going around the table answering the question “What did you want to be when you grew up?” When it came to him, he was quiet at first, then what he said next broke my heart.

“When you are poor, you do not think about things like that. The only thing you think about is where you will get your next meal; how you will fill your stomach.”

Can you imagine a life without dreams? A life without a hope for your future?

That is the reality of many of these people who stood in line. The average wage of a person in Madagascar is less than $2 per day. Add on top of that a tumor or a deformity that could prevent you from getting that job that would provide that $2 per day. Or having a child with a cleft lip, club feet, or bowed legs that you wouldn’t have the means to help and how that would weigh on your heart as a parent. These people are strong, they are overcomers, they are brave, and they are HIS.

These are them…And we are giving them hope.

Bowed legs to be made straight

 

Club feet to walk

Disfigurement to be restored

 

Cleft lips to smile

Goiters to be removed

We are giving hope and joy..That sometimes come from bubbles!

As I stood in the sweltering heat of the midmorning sun and walked back and forth down the lines of people waiting to be seen, I had never known the Lord’s faithfulness more than I did in that moment. After a month and a half delay waiting in Oregon to return to the ship, 3 days of air travel, 9 days of rough seas, a week of scrubbing every surface in the hospital and setting up the wards, I was now living in the moment that all of that was for.

There I was standing in front of the patients who I would soon be able to share my love with, in a way that I only know how because of how the Father has shown his love to me. They are why I am here. They are why I left my family and friends, they are the ones who give my heart more joy than anything else I’ve ever known. They are the ones who teach me about my Father’s heart.

I love what one of my friends onboard said..

“We will have our whole lives to love those back home, but this is the only opportunity we will ever have to love these people”

 

I have been given the most amazing task. I pray every day that the Lord will impress on me His love for these people so that I will love them well…