Vindicated

There are times when I feel like whining and kicking up a fuss about minute things in life. And I am idiopathically grumpy towards the tiniest things and defaults. I get annoyed and upset and I wonder if it has anything to do with my hormonal cycle or spiritual. That was until God reminded me in a gentle way through the experiences of a missionary doctor, Dr David Stevens in his book Jesus M.D, that I'm reading.

Titled Rich Lesson in a Poor Country, I feel compelled to put this up here to remind myself and others how much we take things for granted and what our priority in life should be.

As a physician, even a Christian doctor, I admit that I'm too often so focused on physical needs that I overlook spiritual ones. I was never more aware of this than during a relief mission into Sudan during the early 1900s.

...There was a strange epidermic in Sudan killing thousands of people....

We established a base in Ulang, a village of 2,500 people so close to the middle of nowhere I'm sure we were forty miles beyond the Great Commission. To reach Ulang, we had taken a two-hour flight in the noisy cargo section of a United Nations C-130 from Chitokiloki in northwest Kenya to land on a remote dirt strip on the banks of a meandering river. We transferred tents, an outboard motor, fuel, food, and medical and camping supplies into the boat that had filled most of the plane's hold. Then we endured a four-hour trip up a snake-and crocodile- infested river in our fibreglass boat so overloaded that we only had a couple of inches of free board. We had to be extremely careful not to rock the boat or gun the motor and swamp our precarious craft.

There were no roads to Ulang because there were no vehicles that required roads. The people lived in abject poverty. Living conditions were like going back to Africa a hundred years. Yet there was a vibrant Christian church ini Ulang because a national Christian had brought the Gospel to them years ago. It was an extra large hut with a grass roof and no walls; they had no other building materials. There used makeshift pillars of crooked tree limbs to hold the rood up.

The day I was there a couple hundred people were packed under the roof. Maybe another 250 sat outside on the ground in the blinding heat and sun as the pastor preached.

Since we had just arrived the day before, I went up and met the pastor after the service. When we introduced ourselves through a translator, he invited us to his hut for a little bit of tea, a precious commodity in this remote, war-torned area. Once we were served, I inquired of the pastor through an interpreter, " I see you have so many needs here. How can we help you?"

He didn't even hesitate before he asked,"Could you please send us some Bibles?"
"How many Bibles do you have in your church?" I wanted to know.
"We have eight," he told me. "But we have 78 evengelists who go out from here to preach in other villages each Sunday. We all have to share those eight Bibles. Do you think you could bring us somemore Bibles?" His eyes seemed to light up at the prospect.

"I will do what i can," I promised, hoping I could find Bibles in their local language. " What else can we get you? What else do you need?"

He said," I want to know how much we appreciate your bringing the medical team to help us."He walked out with me behind the village to where there were 400 fresh graves-- people who had all died in the last month from an epidemic of relapsing fever. What a tragedy! Each person could have been cured by taking a single 250mg tetracycline tablet costing just pennies. " We need your medical help," he told me. Then he added," And if it wouldn't be too much trouble, next time you come back to Ulang, could you bring us some cloth?"

That made me curious. Thinking maybe this pastor wanted to make something special for his church-- perhaps choir robes or a clothe for covering the makeshift communion table-- I asked," What do you need cloth for?"

He smiled a little sadly and hung his head for a moment. "Well," he admitted, "it's just so embarassing for our women to come to church on Sunday half-naked."

I began to think. Would I be at church next Sunday if I had absolutely nothing to wear? Would I be asking for Bibles before I thought to ask for clothes for my wife and daughters who were going to church topless? Would I be asking for Bibles before I asked for medicines to stop an epidermic that in a few short weeks had already wiped out 15 percent of my town?

In that moment, it hit me that this simple, godly Sudanese pastor realized something about priorities that many of us still need to learn. He knew, as the Great Physician did, the importantce of dealing with people's real pathology.

He knew the hiostory. He had heard the chief complaint, He had seen the symptoms of war and disease. But he understood the real pathology. He knew the only effective, lasting treatment for his hurting people needed to be spiritual.

As I read this, I felt truly ashamed of myself. Here I was, in a so much more better position than most of the people in this world. I have a roof over my head, I have not known a day when I have absolutely NOTHING to eat, nothing to drink, and no money in my pockets, and no clothes to wear. Here was a man, asking for cloth for the women who come to church topless..

Bearing this in mind, I resolved to work harder to pass this semester 7 finals, and to work towards getting that four letters behind my name to serve God by serving the people around me. A servant heart needs to be vindicated time and time again, because a servant can forget his place in his Master's house. God bless :)

Your name, O LORD, endures forever,
your renown, O LORD, through all generations.

For the LORD will vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants. Psalm 135:13-14