Children & Mango Tree on the 18th...

I decided to spend the day in the post-op ward. And it was amazing. The children are awesome. They have been through so much. It is a joy to help them. There are Jean and Kevin, the babies. Then Founa, Francellot, Jenny and Lovensky with femur pins. Christelle and Mistil with lower limb amputations and others with either broken arms or legs in casts or burn wounds. There are a few others who have less earthquake related injuries, like Deve with a congenital heart defect. She was supposed to have surgery the day after the earthquake, but the hospital collapsed. A lot of the morning was spent doing wound care. And in the afternoon I did various other tasks. One of my team mates was doing patient interviews and I listened in on one of them. 14 year old Christelle was sharing. Her parents died in the earthquake at a different location to where she was. She was in her house with her sister, brother-in-law and her nephew. She actually rescued her nephew but had a wall collapse on her leg, which caused her to now have a lower leg amputation. What a sacrifice. It brought tears to my eyes.

Later that evening we had a time of worship under the mango tree. It was a teary time- thinking about the children - their joy and perseverance in the midst of suffering. Seeing one of the patients, Darlene, with her tibia fracture, singing with a smile on her face. It is hard to imagine what is going on in the minds of these children. Suffering, trauma and losses, yet able to smile in the midst of it all. God is so in this place. He is using us to minister to the children and the children to minister to us. Amazing. Actually the mango tree became a bit of a safe haven later on, after the after shock on the 22nd and the children and caretakers were too scared to stay inside the church building. They moved under the mango tree in the middle of the night and started singing songs of praise. On Sunday mornings the church gatherings were also held under the mango tree.