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SUFFERING

     Thousands of miles and a whole continent in between are two women.  They don't know each other, nor will they while on this earth.  Yvonne and I know them both.  Both of them are suffering.

     Several weeks ago Yvonne was coming home after visiting a friend when she came upon Bernadette.  Wrapped in little more than rags, Bernadette was laying outside the doors of local clothing and jewelry stores, barely conscious.

     Though we did not know her name at that time, we've seen Bernadette before along with countless other beggars that roam our neighborhood.  We had never seen her in this condition.  

     Her lips were white, her eyes yellow and her hair speckled with grit from the street.  She sat in a puddle of air conditioning condensation and her own urine.  Without help she couldn't sit up, let alone stand up.  

     Someone nearby had given her a cup of water and a morsel of food, but she was too weak to lift her hand to put them to her mouth.  Two young women had stopped to comfort her, but really did not know what to do.  Mostly, people either just walked by or stood and stared.

     With the help of our translator, Gerand, we were able to extract enough information to know that if we didn't help her she was going to die.  The three of us were eventually able to lift Bernadette into a tuc tuc and transport her to the local hospital.

     Within a day she had regained much of her strength.  Within two days she was able to walk to a bathroom (without her cane) and bathe.  A week later she was able to leave the hospital.

     The curious thing about Bernadette is that she has family not far away.  They have enough to provide their sister food and shelter, but Bernadette prefers wandering the streets and begging.  We have seen her several times in the last week, right where she has been before.

     While it is apparent that Bernadette, who is 60 years old, suffers from some form of dimensia, it is also apparent that she has enough awareness to know she has a place where she could live in a semblance of dignity.  She prefers indignity.  Her family is well aware of her condition, but is unwilling to fight through Bernadette's obstinance to help.

     Back in the states, there is another who is suffering.  She did not grow up in squalor, but in middle class America.  As a young girl she contracted polio.  Now as a 74-year-old woman she is battling cancer.

     What we know about Jeannine is that she is a fighter.  She fought through polio and raised a family without the help of an absentee husband.  She persevered through adversity and was able to provide.  The ultimate fruits of her labor are two children of immense character.  

     Her son and daughter are the picture of what any parent's heart would desire; both accomplished and both with healthy families of their own.  Most importantly, they love their mother deeply.

     When we heard of Jeannine's challenge Yvonne and I really didn't know how to respond.  You see, Jeannine is a friend of ours.  We have shared Christmas and Thanksgiving together, but we did not know how to share in her suffering.  So, we prayed.

     Just recently we exchanged e-mails, and Jeannine said this: "I believe the only way I'll succeed in winning this challenge is with God's help."

     What I see from a distance is the success of Jeannine's suffering.  She has already won.  The rewards are her children and grandchildren, who are now at her side with love and compassion.  In return, Jeannine has persevered with courage and grace.

     No matter how pragmatic or accurate a doctor's prognosis, where there is God there is always hope.  And where there is hope there is love.  The Bible says, "...God is love...Now there abides these three; faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."

     You see, the difference between Bernadette and Jeannine is love.  Bernadette's family is ambivalent when it comes to her suffering.  There is defeat and separation.  There is no desire to ensure the one who is suffering any sort of comfort and in exchange they receive no comfort.

     On the other hand, Jeannine's family is tied together in love.  They are bound by compassion and mercy.  I suspect that though they might not even recognize it, that their hearts are set on the prospects of justice prevailing - that ultimately their hearts are united in eternity.

    So, one family is divided, the other united.  One is forlorn, the other hopeful. One woman suffers in bitterness, the other in love.

    We are reminded of a Savior, who's birth we are about to celebrate.  He lived, He suffered and He died...for us.  Then He was resurrected...for us.  

     Yvonne and I pray that you would know this love this Christmas.  That it would resurrect purpose in your life.  And once you know it, share it with someone who is suffering.  It is the greatest gift we could possibly give.

Love and a Club Foot

Mike Broadhurst

Some of my deepest, most satisfying meditations come before the sun rises - before I'm fully awake.  The clarity of introspection is so intense that I'm not sure there are words fitting for its description. The thoughts are so unusually concise and real, it is as though they are coming from a source other than myself.  I like to call them, "My God moments."

This morning I awoke to the memory of something that I had long since forgotten.  I was born with a club foot.  I remember my mom telling me on several occasions about the experience. She said that when the doctor informed my father and her, my father threw himself across the bed bawling like a baby.  My dad was not someone who cried.

As my mom told the story, in the ensuing months several times a day she would have to take my feet and bend them in an unnatural way until I screamed and cried with pain.  She said it was so difficult she could hardly do it, but she knew that if she didn't do it that the affliction would grow worse.  

As I recalled this story I whimpered in my slumber, trying to do so quietly so that I didn't wake up my wife.  Why was I crying?  Let me explain.

I don't know how severe my club foot was, but suffice to say it didn't require surgery.  There are many people here in Madagascar who are severely afflicted with the deformity.   Manipulative treatment can correct it and this is one of the services that Mercy Ships has the capacity to provide.

Mercy Ships does a great work, but as I'm sure you can understand they can't do all of the work.  As I was standing on the balcony of the upper floor of the Hope Center yesterday I was watching our screening team meet with about 50 local people suffering from various infirmities.

Keep in mind this part of the Mercy Ships cadre has already been to 10 regions of Madagascar interviewing people for potential life-changing surgeries.  What that means is that the surgery and treatment schedules have pretty much been booked up for our entire 10-month service.

Let me interject here, hospitals in Madagascar are not what you think of when you think of a hospital in the USA.  That's worth a whole other blog.  Suffice to say, Malagasy hospitals are lacking by comparison.

Over the past few months Mercy Ships has completed the rehabilitation of a building within the Toamasina hospital complex for the purpose of Ponseti procedures.  This manipulative technique corrects congenital clubfoot without invasive surgery.  Sometimes the treatment can take several years when provided for persons well beyond infancy, as it requires reshaping tissue, cartilage and bone with casting and recasting.  If caught early enough the affliction can start to be reversed in a matter of weeks.

From that balcony I could see people being tenderly turned away, though many have treatable infirmities.  One young man, perhaps the age of 15, limped slowly toward the hospital's security gate with his mother.  His right hand on her left shoulder, they would take three or four steps, stop to rest and repeat the process.  Suffice to say, their journey was arduous.

So, I wept.  I wept because the young man suffered from club foot, a very treatable deformity.

According to medical sources, Ponseti treatment is almost 100% successful in all cases of club foot. IT IS NOT EXPENSIVE.  About 150,000 children are born with this affliction annually,  80% of them are in developing nations.  So, in my mind, that young man limped away needlessly.

The fact is most of the horrendous appearing deformities and diseases here are very treatable, if not avoidable, if countered with proper nutrition, education and/or routine medical attention.

The famous atheist Richard Dawkins loves to ask mockingly, "If there is a God, then why is there so much suffering."  Some in churches, synagogues and temples will ask this weekend, "What can I do?" and then do nothing.

Suffering doesn't exist because there is no God or there is a God.  Suffering exists because there is man...many of them with the wherewithal to help other men and still have plenty left over.

So, will you ponder this question with me.  At what cost?

Oh, that if the world could see, feel and touch the pain that is beyond the miles that separate them from places like Madagascar.  I'm certain hearts would be changed.

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