Helplessness turns to Hopefulness

Yesterday began as a day of complete helplessness.  As I sat down to write a story, millions flood my thought.  The stories that came to my mind are stories of pain and suffering.  I see it everyday.  Before I can set foot on the street from our front door, I turn to the left and see a medical clinic for the ones in complete poverty.  Parents holding their children longing for help, because they have done all they can do.  Pain surrounds me.

As we were finishing up our ministry site earlier in the week, our pastor received a phone call from a parent in their congregation whose child was in critical condition and needed prayer immediately.  We left the worksite and headed for the hospital.  We enter the hospital and the smell pushes me back into memories of the governmental hospitals in Africa – a sick, unclean, stagnant smell fills the air. We are led to the pediatrics wing, where children are in one large room laying in rows of bed and parents doing all they can to relieve their child’s pain.  We walk over to a little boy named Marvin, who does not even notice our presence.  He hasn’t urinated in a week and is uncontrollably sweating.  His mom gently rubs the sweat from his face and head – hoping her son can return home with her.  She is helpless.  The dad walks in the room, not noticing the twenty other children, focused on his son.  Our team provided comfort and prayer for the boy.  We prayed for healing and trusted God…

Part of our team visited Marvin through the week.  The doctors did all they could.  The family stayed awake at night squeezing a pump to allow air to flow through a breathing tube and into his lungs.  Thoughts of my friend back home, who spent hours awake at night holding the jaw of her son open so he could retain enough oxygen to make it to the next day, took control of my mind.  The love these parents and family have for their children overwhelm me.  What it must feel like to have a child, especially one who is sick…

Through tough times among our team and especially among the parents, Marvin was taken out of this world, while God is still holding his parents in the palm of his hands and providing counseling and comfort.

The question, “Can I ever escape this pain and suffering?”  I want to ignore it, but I can’t.  Then I hear the sweet words from my Lord, “Molly, do you see it?  Do you see why I had to send my Son?”  

God did not intend for us to be captured by all the pain and suffering we experience on a daily basis.  The pain comes from the sin that entered the world from the time of Adam.  After God had tried various means to relieve it, He chose to do the ultimate… He sent His Son to relieve suffering because He loves us.  There is so much pain. There is so much suffering.  There is so much hurt.  Jesus was, is, and will be the only One who brings complete joy, hope, and LOVE.  Some can understand what if feels like to lose a son, and God chose to lose His Son because He loves us and wants to relieve us from the hurt of the world.

Yesterday, ICM invited three thousand people who were involved in the past feeding program to an event called “Celebrate Jesus.”  The churches come together to truly celebrate the meaning of Christmas.  Churches perform the song “We are the Reason.” This song brought light to my pain and brought back the meaning of Christmas.