Our contacts, Casey and Rat have a 7 month old son named Dylan who ever since we arrived in the village had been sick. It had gotten to the point where they needed to keep him in the hospital, to continually do breathing treatments and medicine for the pneumonia he had.
Last week, my teammate Brook and I ventured up to the hospital in order to give Rat a little break. Brook had been going up for several days and knew the drill of when to give him his breathing treatments and how to administer the medicine. She also knew the lay of the land of the hospital and could drive dad’s motorbike to the hospital with someone on the back.
We went, planning to go for the day and ended up staying overnight, which was a fun adventure. But the highlight, or unexpected moment happened before Rat and Dylan got their own room, when their bed was in the exact middle of a room that housed 50 some sick children and the people that were there to take care of them.
Dylan had just finished a treatment. These always made him writhe and cry, to the point where it sometimes took three of us to hold him down. He was still a little upset, and the best thing to do was walk him around the room a little and let him settle down. It was my turn to hold the little man and so, having learned the song that his mom and friend Katie sing to him, I began to sing to him. Soon, singing his song over and over got a little old, so I went back to the old classics, some of my favorite hymns. All of sudden, as I was singing Amazing Grace, I looked around the room.
Here I was, surrounded by 50 sick children and their families, most of whom are Buddhist, and I’m singing Amazing Grace. It was a surreal moment, holding Dylan who is now perfectly still and falling asleep on my shoulder, and singing a song about the grace that God has given all of us.
Several minutes later, after handing Dylan back over to Brook, I had the chance to sing again. The little boy in the bed next to Dylan’s was also having breathing treatments, and it was his turn to be held down. I held his little head, looked into his eyes, and started singing Amazing Grace again. He still cried, but somehow I knew that song was helping, if even just a little bit. And his mom was ever so grateful that we stepped in and helped her.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.
