I walked into the children’s ward at the hospital to screams of agonizing pain. I looked around to see where they were coming from. Ryan my teammate pointed to a 10 year old boy laying in a steel framed hospital bed by the far wall. The boy was lying naked in the fetal position grabbing at his knee that had been dressed with an inch of bandage cloth. I recognized the boy at once.
Two days ago I was visiting the hospital and he had a bright smile on his face. He walked me around by the hand and pointed at things he wanted me to draw in his notepad. Last time he pointed to a friendly giraffe painted on the wall. But now there was no pointing only grabbing at his wounded knee. No one in the ward seemed to notice his ear numbing screams. I covered his naked body with the bed sheet. I noticed the sheet had big blotches of dry blood. I held his hand and began to pray for peace and healing to come into his body. His water-filled eyes met mine.
His screams died to whimpering. I began to sing softly to him. But the pain would come back like electrical shocks every few minutes. His neck would crane back as far as it could as he let out shouts of terror. I felt so helpless and frustrated that my prayers didn’t seem to lift his pain from his body. I tried to be strong for him and look him gently in his eyes and tell him it was going to be ok. Where is your mom, I thought? Why is no one here for you?
The nurse came over about 10 minutes later and gave him a shot of painkiller in the butt. It wasn’t long after that his pain subsided and he became sleepy. He kept directing me to rub his knee for him as he lay resting with his eyes closed. I rubbed it for about a half hour. My muscles in my forearm became sore. I hoped that he would fall asleep. But he kept opening his eyes looking into mine.
I didn’t know what was wrong with his knee, or why he had no family member with him like the rest of the patients, or why my prayers didn’t seem to be effective as the painkiller. But I knew in that moment I was called to be. To be there, to touch him, to pray for him, to sing to him, to care about him, to be Jesus.
*I do ministry at the hospital on Tuesdays and Thursday with some of my team. We go to pray and bring comfort to those that are suffering.
