Some times the stories we try and tell about the work here are complicated.  There are many people involved from many angles, often somebody is related to some one and in hindsight we can look back and see how God wove it together.

I am going to try my best to weave this one together for you with my limited ability to tell straight story.  Many times I share in sentences under a photo or in person I end up on rabbit trails and I tend to ramble on and on.   I see some of you nodding your head to that 😉  So I’ll do my best to keep the events in order and stay on track.

It was second to last day of school, the 26th of Sept., I think right before lunch we had a student playing soccer during sports severely broke his arm when he tripped on the ball.  I also tell you it was also the day before a major holiday.  We rushed him through the village trying to get a local clinic to stabilize his arm.  I know a loose compound fracture can do a lot of internal damage as well it just hurts tremendously with every move.  Unfortunately our road have been under construction for a while and it was nothing but bumps and pot holes at the time.  We visited 3 clinics in our village and there were no doctors available only their wife’s (which is the default nurse) and they wouldn’t touch him.  At this point we picked up the dad waiting on the side of the road as we traveled to the next village for the next clinic.  Dad wanted to take him to the witch doctor, to which we had to get real pushy about not allowing him to go there.  Less than a minute later we we pulled over at another a clinic again no doctor either but his wife told us to just take him to a witch doctor, (yes for real a clinic referencing you to a witch doc.) the dad was happy to hear that and the argument started all over.

Finally we went out about 5 miles away super slow down the bumpy road to the closest real hospital that we have and they had no doctors there that would be able to help as the break was to severe they said it would require surgery.  I already knew that but we were just trying to get it splinted before we drove an hour down a bunch of bad road, because with each bump the boy would scream.  At this point we kind of had to force the doctor to take some sort of helpful action.  So I waited in the car while his dad and Ream had the doc put on a splint.  Maybe about 50 feet away, outside the building, in the car music on, windows up, air conditioning on and the car running and I can hear the boy screaming as if it was a scene from Princes Bride.
When they all get back in the car Ream says the “doctor” just pulled on it to straighten it out and wrapped it to a board from a scrap pile of lumber, no shots or pain meds, just pulled on it..  Though it was a moment of tremendous pain it did make the whole ride more tolerable for him and us, because by this time some of us were wore thin and a few of us felt like fainting.

There’s a lot more to this story if your cringing or grossed out and don’t want to read anymore.  By the way this stuff is common here the whole even is quite normal in one way or another.

So about an hour away we get to Take City state hospital we get scooted right a long and the doctors see him right away.  I would say as bad and crazy as things seem here some times, in the USA I feel we’d still be sitting in a waiting room filling out a form.  So about 15 or 20 minutes later they come out with the x-ray and you can see the bone is completely separated and over lapping each other.  Ream told the doctors that dad wants to take the son to the witch doctor, and the docs at the hospital let dad know how serious it was and that it requires surgery with metal bars a screws.   The lady in the hallway listening to it all stands up with a crooked arm and shows the dad and says this is what you’ll get if you take him to a witch doctor.  So thankfully the dad agreed to have it fixed at the hospital.
Only problem it was the eve of a major holiday and there was no doctor to do the surgery, everyone was on vacation.  He would have to wait in the hospital bed for a week, next Friday was the soonest they could get to it.  “NO!” as I was getting fed up with it all by know.  We’d been at this for about 4 hours now since we first took off.  “Well” they said you can take him to the capital city about 3 hours the opposite direction.  You see before we left for Takeo city hospital I had Ream call and make sure they could even do it in Takeo.  I didn’t want to drive there and find out they could not.  Yes, the phone call came back they can, the part left off was that it would take a week because there was no one there.

Lesson learned don’t get sick here on a holiday.  Jokingly one of our volunteers here said she would now bubble wrap herself on holidays to avoid any incidences herself.

So we head back home, it’s on the way to the Capital the dad has a group of family waiting to assist him from here on out and our time would be finished.  The family standing by the road were wearing bank uniforms as they just got off work so I told Ream to grab one of them and swear they were not going to take him to the village witch doctor or we wouldn’t release the boy to them.  Dressed up professionals, I hoped they would better understand what was needed to be done for the child.
Finally just before dark we maid it back home, I think it was 6 o’clock by then.

Here is the connecting story I said I was getting to.  During the day’s event I took time and prayed that God would comfort the boy and lessen his pain and cover his healing but also use this day to speak to the family and the community of how we care for our students.  The neighboring schools would have left the kid on the soccer field until dad came forever crippling the child after a trip to the witch doctor which is best known for hurting and killing people.  I prayed for all the challenges that it would be seen and be used for God’s glory and furthering the ministries ability to reach people.

Yes, it’s being seen.  A couple weeks later we had a man deliver a letter to the office.   It was his heart felt thanks for graduating his daughter and her passing the national exam.  In it he said we “took a rough diamond and polished it”
But we also came to find out that he is also the grandfather of the boy who broke the arm.  Turns out the sister had broken her arm earlier during the year and the second brother had broken his arm just last month.  Both siblings were taken to the witch doctor.
You could say the family has a string of bad luck, we mention to them that the family more than likely has a bone issue that needs to be looked at more closely along with a better diet and with higher more calcium, maybe drink some milk.

So we wanted to share his letter with you.  Through we’ve received wonderful praised for the work being done here in the past it’s the first letter we’ve gotten and we feel these different events tied together through a single family coming together.  We praise God for it.  We love how he sees his daughter and how he’s expressed her refinement.  I think it’s incredibly sweet and we also see we get the chance to work with his last daughter that had been attending public school up until now.

We are continuing to look at what God is doing here with this story as it’s not finished and one day not too far from now I’ll come back with something incredible to say and reference you back to this post.
I love what God does in our life and in our ministry.  I know God can work the same in your life and you can seem Him work more regularly when your involved in a ministry.  Get involved and let God use you, don’t just sit in the pew.

On this day I truly did not want to be there driving the car to the doctors all day long.  I hate such events, I am not good at all with other peoples pains.  I selfishly wanted to be home inside my mind, but I was also obedient to do the right thing that needed to be done.
I think the thing I would reiterate here is praying for and looking for what is God going to do?  So much better than asking “Why is God doing this or that?” so much more encouraging and rewarding afterwards and often makes enduring the next event a little easier.

So yes I wanted to share a letter with you in hopes that you are also blessed.
If you pray or support us here in this ministry this reward us yours as well.

“On behalf of the parents of Kim K…….…, who studied at A Heart of Wisdom school in grade 12 in 2019 and recently passed the 12th grade test in August of this year.

          We were very excited when we received the news and results from the ministry and the school that she passed her test. This result is what we believed, hoped and trusted for.  We hoped for a passing result, and it didn’t matter what grade it was. Because the school has quality leaders, managers, teachers and staff with ability, strong willingness, very good self-discipline, excellent teacher training, they could help cut this rough diamond that was not yet polished and turn it into a valuable diamond. It gives us as parents honor that our daughter can have a bright future and can be productive and involved in building up society.

          We would like to thank you and we are very proud of the principal and all the teachers of A Heart of Wisdom school that have done a successful job. In this new school year in 2019-2020 I am planning to bring another granddaughter to study here alongside two grandsons and a granddaughter who already study at A Heart for Wisdom School.  We hope she will also receive education, knowledge, wisdom, morals, good attitude, etc.

          We hope that the school will accept our thank you letter. May the principal and all the teachers at A Heart for Wisdom school be successful in leading, teaching and everything that you do for the future.

Thank you and be honored from our family.”

I hope that the praise we received via your support encourages you to continue to pray for us and the work going on here so we can continue changing lives.

Blessings,