It started with a general air of excitement about the day. We were having our center-wide Field Day. Games going on everywhere you turn, friends sitting around chatting, proud parents cheering, kids running from one event to another, the younger ones just running (as is their usual). However, as the games began, the doctor came by asking us nurses to be ready to come to the clinic in an hour or two. A helicopter was in-bound with a very sick bush missionary and the faster we could process the medical needs (labs, x-ray, etc.), the better. About an hour and a half later, I heard the chopper. It was really quite the entrance for these missionaries. The game had to be put on hold and the field cleared in order to land the chopper. So in a grand half-time show, in comes the chopper, up drives a golf cart, the two clinic staff assisted the missionary and his wife onto the cart and off they drove while the chopper throttled up and lifted off, flying for the hangar, all in front of a large crowd excited to get to see such a show! And then the games resumed.
Throughout the next two days, tests were run and treatments began. It appeared to be a mix of malaria and possibly some Dengue Fever thrown in for good measure. Though miserable, he pulled through it all well, recovering enough to move with his family to a house on center where he could continue to be monitored but be settled more comfortably. Over the next two weeks he continued to improve and heal. He and his family rejoined their tribal work about a month ago now. Last report, they are doing well.
Times like this humble me. The test results didn’t seem to line up so well as expected with what appeared by everything else to be malaria possibly mixed with some Dengue Fever. But despite our confusion, God used us and guided us. He healed and restored. And because of Him, and Him only, this family could return without much delay to the work that God had led them to…expanding the reach of the gospel. As the hymn says, “To God be the glory, great things He has done!”