The Forgotten

Patients that often come to Mercy Ships have similar stories. They've been to multiple hospitals and talked to many a doctor.  Usually doctors that want to charge them exorbitant amounts of money that these Africans don't have, nor will they ever see that much money in their lifetime.  So they live with their sickness - often seen as a curse, and are cast out of everyday society.  They lack education because they are too ashamed to go to school.  Or worse, they aren't welcomed at school.  They often lack love because they fear no one will accept them or talk to them with their "curse" of a disease.  

This was the case with Blessing.  At 21 years old, she has endured much in her life.  You would never know her hardships if you spoke with her now.  She is a joy to be around and her name exemplifies her personality.  She is from Nigeria and speaks beautiful English.  I got to know her at our off ship clinic, the hospitality center, where she stayed for a while post operatively.  She, too, had a similar story. 

She'd been to multiple doctors who wanted to charge her hundreds of dollars to get surgery.  Her father was a pastor and she loved her family deeply.  She quit attending school, not by choice, but because of the stares and pressure when the tumor inside her mouth enlarged.   So she studied at home with her mother.  She wants to be a teacher or a nurse, and was so excited to return to Nigeria and finish her education. 
After multiple doctors visits her hope was lacking.  Then she ran into Emmanuel, another patient of Mercy Ships who'd had his facial tumor removed.  Emmanuel saw Blessing on the side of the road, and told her to come to the ship for screening.  (You can read his story in my previous newsletter here.) So she went to screening, got her surgery, and is now tumor free.  

Blessing and I got to talking.  She spoke with me about how God has been to good to her.  Since her dad was a pastor, she said she loved to read Psalm 31 and it gave her much comfort.  I left the hospitality center that day thinking that Blessing was going to go far in life.  She was so optimistic and motivated to do good in this world and help others.  Now that her tumor was gone she could go on and live in society once again. 

It wasn't until a few weeks later that I went back and actually read Psalm 31 - her favorite:

9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.  My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak. Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends— those who see me on the street flee from me.

12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love....

21 Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22 In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

I was humbled.  Blessing could relate and loved this Psalm because she was the out-cast and God did see her through. I cannot even begin to imagine what life would be like, living for years with a deformity that defines you every where you go. A physical condition that disrupts the course of your life and alters your plans and dreams and hopes.  The Psalmist says "I am forgotten by them as though I were dead."  Can you imagine thinking that you were forgotten in life?  As though you had died? 

I read a statistic this week that said the number of people that die in this world from starvation is like having six September 11th's every single day.  Forever.  It's pretty humbling when you think about the thousands of people that die every day just because they don't have the means to eat. 

This year has taught me so much, but I think one of the biggest lessons is that while I have been so blessed in my short lifetime, so much of this world is not.  Luckily for Blessing, she was cured of her physical deformity and has a new chance at life.  But sadly so many others don't.  At Mercy Ships screening this year (photo above) I sat at the door on the way out of the screening and offered to pray with all those people that we couldn't help.  So many could not hold back the tears as we were talking to them, and you just wanted to be the answer for them and tell them "yes you will be helped!"  But in reality, I don't know what will happen to those we were not able to help.  

I often say I don't know why God allows so much suffering to occur, but the more I think about it, the more I see that we are not doing enough ("we" meaning those who have enough to help others).  It's not about how much you give away, but how much you have left. 

Hopefully through my blog, you get to see and experience alongside me some of these stories of what life is like in the third world.  When I think of the statistics on the starving children and I drive by the leaf huts in town, I wonder how many of those starving children have come and gone through this ship.  So when I ask this question to God - why are you allowing this suffering to occur?  All these people who have no access to good healthcare or food to eat or who do not have love?  The longer I am here the more I realize that God's response is this: "I have commanded you - every single one of you - to love your neighbors as yourselves.  Treat these neighbors as you would want your own children to be treated.  Literally.  I have given you skills and abilities and blessings in order to help them.  Don't let them be forgotten."