House call

Yesterday we didn't go back to hospital Escuales. Doctora said she had two house calls to make and she wanted us to go with her nurse so she could stay and work at the clinic. We grabbed our backpacks with a few medical supplies in them and hopped in the car with Jedida, a rather feisty, yet caring nurse, who puts up with our limited Spanish. We drove about 20 mins into one of the mountains and pulled over in front of a metal gate. Jedida knocked on the door and we were let in by a small boy who beamed when he saw us. We said hello to an elderly woman and walked back into the furthest room in the house. There lay a teenage boy in his bed with his younger brother sitting at his side. The brother quickly left when he saw us. The room had one window facing the street, a TV and an old play station. The boy's hands and feet were wrapped, and a catheter hung by his bed. He was a paraplegic and we were there to clean a large pressure ulcer. Apparently Jedida had been taking care of him for 8 years now. We rolled him over and I noticed that his back and legs were totally flat, something I had only seen in hospice patients who didn't get turned in the bed regularly. Not only did he have a large ulcer in his lower back but also ulcers where calf muscle used to be. 

This is what happens when constant pressure is applied to one area of the skin. Our bodies were not made to stay in one place all the time, but to move. Our skin is an amazing barrier when it can transfer pressure and stresses along different points, but when it can't move and the pressure stays there, eventually our skin will breakdown. Then our body is open to infection. In diabetics this happens when nerve endings in their feet stop working because their body has been over saturated with glucose. When they can't feel their feet they don't notice when a rock is in their shoe or they step on a nail. Their feet don't shift with constant pressure against them, and all too often the skin breaks down leaving a path for infection. This is the leading cause of leg amputations in the US. Because once infection gets to the bone it is very hard to stop, and drastic measures must be taken to save the body. 

Thankfully for this boy, his ulcers didn't look infected yet. But if his body is constantly lying in that same bed that same way, his ulcers will never been relieved of the pressure that caused the problem in the first place. How is their hope of healing? All we can do is apply antibiotics so that hopefully he doesn't get a horrible infection. 

Again, how much is this like the Body of Christ? We are meant to move, to be active and vibrant working for the Lord. Yes pressure comes, but as a church body we can bear one another's burdens so they are not too heavy on one person. Or individually we are to laid our burdens at the feet of Christ and not try to carry them alone. When we do carry our burdens alone we stop moving towards God through the trail. In doing so the pressure gets to us and starts breakdown our defenses. Satan attacks our minds and makes us question Truth at the core of our faith. What an infection of lies he can bring about! And how destructive it can be! Oh that we would lean on God, and allow others in our church bodies to bear our burdens with us, so we may stand firm in the midst of trial. Then instead of an ulcer forming, allowing a rout for infection, we develop tougher skin, calluses that are able to withstand more and more pressure. 

After we left this house, we drove further away from the city. We turned onto a road that reminded me more of the roads in Malawi or Mozambique than Honduras. We bumped along then suddenly we turned into the tall grasses. Here the only marker of a road were two beaten tire tracks between grass taller than myself. We mowed the grass down with our vehicle as we drove down a steep hill and stopped by a creek. Jedida got out so we followed wondering what was going on. Down the stream some kids were swimming and a truck slowly tried crossing to the other side. In a few minuets our patient came walking through the water to us. She was a quiet gentle elderly woman with a simple smile. She had fallen on some rocks and bruised her ribs. We were there to give her some pain medicine and make sure we didn't feel any broken ribs (Granted you can't feel hairline fractures, but practically we wouldn't change her management unless they were grossly broken). She thanked us and crossed back over the creek. Then we started our climb back up and out. There's just something about those bumpy roads that makes me smile like crazy! I absolutely love them!

As we drove back and I notice the time that had passed, I realized what a sacrifice it was for Doctora to spare her staff and so much of their time, and to give the medicine and treatments. But then again we are told in Luke, 

"What man among you, who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?

When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,

and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep! ’

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance."

I was thinking how much it is like God to call us to sacrifice after one lost sheep. After all His sacrifice was an amount we cannot even imagine and it's worth is far beyond our understanding. So great is His love, and mercy and compassion that He will go after the one. But He also knows who needs repentance and is ready to repent out of the 100. Wouldn't it be like Him to set the one aside as a way of showing that they are ready for repentance? We need not ignore the opportunities to sacrifice even for one person. Only God knows the eternal value of what we may give. When eternity enters the equation things of this Earth grow strangely dim.