This is Edine, when we found her at her home.
This is Edine when she came to visit us at the clinic.
Again, at the clinic checking her vital signs and weight statistics.
We didn’t even recognize her. She looks so completely different. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you what God did….
On Wednesday, while working in our hospital based malnutrition clinic a nurse found me to ask if we could see this small child named Edine and possibly help her. [imagine that - - a hospital asking a random white non-medical person for help]. So with all our gusto and prayer, we went to little Edine’s cot. She wouldn’t eat or drink for us. She could barely hold her head up. We prayed with the mother and laid hands on the baby. What more could we do than to say when she gets better come to our clinic, we will help. Friday, we returned to the hospital to check on little Edine. We found the nurse and the mother of another patient in a nearby bed. Both said Edine and her mother went home. At first we were excited! Hospital release - - a good sign! No, not here. The mother took Edine home to die the nurse said. She was getting worse and worse. The IV wouldn’t stay in and she was having seizures.
Our team went to the courtyard stunned. We were too late. We prayed, I cried. Each of us felt God saying not to give up… We asked the nurse for her address, she came back with her chart [imagine that - - a hospital giving complicated medical records to 4 random white strangers, we didn’t know this nurse]. The chart looked very bleak. And again the nurse said Edine was at home to die.
Friday night was restless and each of us struggled over this little baby. Personally I wondered how many Edines there were here. I thought about the slow agony of the mothers. I thought about how easily she could get better with the right treatment – the only thing wrong with her was lack of water and food.
Saturday morning God kept us restless and we knew we had to try and find her. God was going to show up and do a miracle, we knew it.
There were so many things against us… for one, we had a scrawled address for a neighborhood we didn’t know in a town and 1 and a half away. Secondly, we didn’t have a car to get there or a translator to go with us. Third, we had the fear creeping in that God might show up, through us in a prayer and embrace to a weeping and lonely mother.
But like I said to begin with – we didn’t even recognize her! She looked so completely different. God did several miracles that Saturday. The first of which was the fact that we did indeed find little Edine in a town of thousands. We had a pastor here at Canaan who dropped his whole schedule to come with us saying “this is a life, I can rearrange everything for a life. That is what matters.” He felt lead to ask several strangers in the city where this house was, each leading us closer and closer. Finally, the last man we asked knew and pointed us to a small shack 50 feet away. And there was the baby we never would have recognized. She was alive. She was more filled out. Her eyes were shining. This child, sent home to die, was spared by God and graced by His healing.
A miracle.
God promises to complete his works, to be faithful, to answer when we ask and do not doubt. He is life and wants to give it. Why do I question that so often?
Thank you for your prayers on little Edine’s behalf. God heard your hearts, as He always does, and gave life to this precious little girl. Her road to full recovery is going to be long, but I trust He will heal her and that one day she will look back and see the miracle of how He saved her. Praise God that He has saved us all in so many ways. Praise God for the beautiful glimpses we see of His saving power.
In awe of Him,
Brittan
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