Recently, I discovered a puzzle app,
which I have been quite enjoying.
Without having to have all the different puzzles and a table to put them
on, I can still do puzzles that take me to different places on my iPad. As you well know, to complete a puzzle, you
need all the pieces, or else the picture is incomplete. To find the pieces that fit, you might look
at the shape or the color of the piece and see where it might go. In some ways, our lives are like a puzzle,
made up of many different pieces, that are interconnected from piece to piece
by a person or an event, and together they make up the story of our lives.
As a missionary at a Hospital, I know
the pieces of the stories that occur and happen inside the walls of the hospital,
but I don’t often know the rest of the pieces that make up the story of the
person’s life. I don’t know all the
events that led them to come to the hospital, or the pieces that happen when
they go home. I have a pretty good idea
of the pieces that happen in the hospital, but I know that is only a part of
it.
I know that some of the patients who
come to us, go home physically healed and others don’t. I know some go home wounded, both physically
and emotionally because of the trauma that occurred bringing them to us. I know some don’t want to go home due to
being afraid and try and find another place to go to.
I know that our doctors, chaplains,
nurses, cleaners, nursing students and more are impacting patient’s lives as
they care for them as Jesus would. Some
of them we know come to know Jesus as their Savior in the hospital, and some
come to know Him after they leave and go home.
Some of them had their faith strengthened and then they go home and
start a church, or become a pastor or an elder in their church, others go home
and pray for their husbands, kids, neighbors and down the road see their lives
changed.
I often get to be one little piece of
the puzzle through my interactions with the patient and family in the Emergency
Room or Clinic Room or on the Ward, but what happens as a result of that piece
– I don’t know. Today on call, I got to
be a piece of the story for 4 different men who were all chopped in their heads
by different men, some enemies, some brothers, and some strangers. Thankfully, all are alive now, but what will
the next piece of the story be? Will
they go out and seek to harm the one who hurt them, or will they be changed
because of the hospital? I got to pray
with a family today whose son seems to have a big brain tumor that is robbing
this 5 yo of his life. While I think I
know some of the next pieces of this story, I don’t know how they will cope
when their son is gone? Will they
continue to trust in God, or be discouraged?
I took care of a women who miscarried her 5th and 6th
babies this week. She already is a
mother of 3 boys and a girl, but was looking forward to the new life that was
growing inside of her. When she started
bleeding on Tues, she came to us for help, and when I scanned her I found that
she still had a live baby growing inside, despite already losing one. She was very happy that life was still
growing and we prayed that it might continue to grow, despite it’s brother
having already been born. 3 days later
she came back and was having contractions, the 6th baby was soon on
it’s way. The mom seemed okay, but was
definitely saddened by the loss. She
thanked me for my care of her, and I prayed that God would strengthen her as
she returned home to her 4 kids, but not to her 5th and 6th.
Sometimes the
other pieces of the puzzle are filled in by someone else, a neighbor, a family
member, a pastor or anyone that they meet.
Just this week, I got to talk to a New Tribes Missionary who lives about
20 minutes from us in a village with her family. When I asked how things were going, she
shared story after story of men and women whose lives were altered/saved/spared
through the Hospital and who now are walking with the Lord and the growth that
they are seeing. She told of a woman who
fell on a coffee stick years ago and almost died, but we were able to do
surgery and she went home and started praying for her family, and now 8 years
later, her son just committed his life to the Lord’s. Another man had been a trouble maker in their
village, but through recent events heard about Jesus and had his life changed
and is now wanting to learn how to teach in their church. The stories were encouraging to me, enabling
me to see a few extra pieces of the puzzle that I don’t often get to see.
Recently, MAF
has flown in a few trauma victims from remote areas of PNG – a boy who broke
his leg in a landslide and another woman who fell off a cliff and sustained a
head injury. Both will go home because
of the pieces that MAF and Kudjip played. This reminded me that while I will
never know the impact of the piece I get to play today or tomorrow, the
important thing is that I play a piece, and use the time I have to continue to
share and show His love to those who come.
