In the USA break a leg and immediately go to the urgent care clinic or emergency room and get it fixed right?
Well in our village in Mozambique, Africa if it happens after 3:00pm and you have to wait till the next day. Even then it won’t be a rush to the hospital, but you will get an early start about 6:30am. First you have to endure a night of pain usually with no pain medication not even one ibuprofen.
Joaquem one of the boys we have cared for the past 5 years just had that terrible experience. He is pretty wide open and was doing some awesome jumps from a very high sand dune when he landed wrong and “snap” broke his leg! Since it was late in the day his only choice was to wait till the next day. He suffered a lot of pain all night without sleeping. We prayed for healing and literally had no other recourse. As the Lord trarried the next morning Joaquem with the help of his friends and family made it down to the sea shore and they lifted him into a sailboat for whatwould be about a hour sail to the more developed island called Ilha de Mocambique. There I met him at the seashore with the old Landrover and we loaded him into the back of the truck.
He was not very happy and still in a lot of pain, but I was impressed how well he was enduring. I drove him about 2 miles to the hospital and there the wait for the doctors to attend him began. About 4 hours later he was able to see a doctor get x-rays and have a plaster cast put on his leg. Fortunately they gave him a precription for what amounts to aspirin and released him.
Now about 1:00pm I load him in the truck again and take him back to the beach where all the sailboats leave for his village that afternoon. The weather was favorable and the boats were on time so Joaquem’s suffering was limited comparied to what it could have been.
Joaquem is one of the original 8 children we care for after his father died back in 2009. He has been working as a fisherman to help sustain his mother and brothers and sister. We make sure he has all of his basic necessities of life and wish we could provide more.
Please pray the Lord will make a way for us to help more families survive the set backs they face each day from accidents or death of the head of the household. Imagine other families in this village. When an accident or sickness comes to them their income stops and their entire family suffers when the provider is unable to provide the families daily bread.
Remember here in Mozambique there are no safety nets of disablity, insurance, social security or even financial aid unless we are there to provide assistence. This entire village and even more people look to us for this type of salvation in addition to the salvation of their souls in Jesus Christ.