A Sad Day


Today started off like any other day, alarm goes off at 6:30, I cringe, hit snooze. The alarm goes off again at 6:40, I cringe again but this time force myself out of bed. Then I start the morning scramble getting ready for our 7:30 devotion with the kids. We sing a few worship songs, spend some time praying together and then I share a short devotional. Ironically this morning I talked about how priceless life is, how we don’t ever know what tomorrow will hold so we better make sure we are doing what God has called us to do today.

I had forgotten something at home so I went back up for a few minutes. Kenol was on the phone with the church secretary explaining some report he needed her to work on when she got in to the office. Not 10 minutes later he got a call that there had been a terrible accident and Madame David, the church secretary was badly injured.  We made our way down to the clinic to see if she was still there. We pulled up, and there were people everywhere. Some covered in blood, some crying, some just watching the scene unfold. In the back of one of the ambulances I could hear them working frantically on a woman, trying to get her stable, in the back of a tap tap a young girl sat looking bewildered, dripping with blood with a wildly disfigured skull, on the ground strapped to a stretcher was Madame David, the church secretary. Kenol went over to pray with her before they put her into the other ambulance and drove away. I helped them take the young girl out of the tap tap on another wood stretcher, and sat praying with her for a few minutes while we waited for Dr. Jennifer to finish with one of the other accident victims. The young girl was going in and out of consciousness as I prayed over her. The woman in the first ambulance died in the midst of all this, the wails of her husband could be heard out the open ambulance door. A few minutes later they had to remove her body and get the ambulance ready for the young girl.

Dr. Jennifer came over to take care of the young girl, and I stepped out of the commotion. A few minutes later Kenol and I left the horrible scene behind us.  Shaken up by what we had seen and thankful for the many times we had been protected on the roads.

A few hours ago I was down at the main office and heard that the young girl has passed away at the hospital.

The good news is that Madame David is ok. She needed a number of stitches on the back of her arm, was banged up some but was being released. Another praise is that Madame David was pregnant, and an ultrasound at the hospital showed that her baby was ok.

This was a not so gentle reminder that we all need to be praying for God’s protection daily. It’s also a good reminder of how powerless we are in the face of death. We never know what tomorrow holds, or if we have a tomorrow. We need to take full advantage of every day we have and be sure to make each one count.

Please pray for Madame David as she recovers, for the families of those who lost loved ones today and for God’s continued protection over all the Mission of Hope staff.

Peace, love and protection,

Rachel

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Baby Sized Miracle

Image
Today I witnessed a beautiful miracle. I saw God's love poured out in a lovingly selfless act. Today I saw the hands and feet of Jesus at work. Today in Leveque something amazing happened. It started with something terribly sad. A newborn baby was dropped into a latrine and left to die. Something I cannot fathom and which shatters my heart. I cannot even begin to understand what went through this mother's mind as she let go of her baby and watched him fall into the dark pit. Thankfully God has a wonderful plan for this little life and his sweet cry was loud enough to be heard by a good samaritan passing by, who quickly called Pastor Williamson, the deaf pastor from Leveque. A group of people worked together to smash the cement cover off the latrine carefully so the baby would not be injured. Then they somehow used some metal bars and a net or basket of some sort to lift the baby out of the pit. Miraculously he only had a few scraps on him. The community came together to care
Read more

How to Be More Effective in Cross Cultural Ministry

There is a sad truth I would like to share with you. All too often people with great intentions do harm in Jesus' name in cross cultural ministry. In my ten years on the mission field I have seen a lot of amazing things happen but I've also seen a lot of hurt caused by well meaning ministry workers. I have compiled this short list of things I have learned, and that I think you should know to help you be more effective in cross cultural missions. 1. Always remember that YOU are the foreigner. This is not your country, you are a guest and should act like one. 2. The people you are serving know SO much more than you ever will about their country, culture and needs. 3. Your way isn't the only way, or necessarily the right way. 4. You better work your butt off to learn the language, and quickly. If you have been living or serving in a foreign land for a year and still can't communicate more than basic greetings to those you came to serve you need to make some chang
Read more

Gross, gross, gross!!

I can handle mice. I can handle rats. I can handle lizards. I can handle cockroaches. I can handle snakes. I can handle tarantulas. I can handle flying green leaf shaped bugs that smell funny. I can handle a lot more than your average woman, with two minor exceptions: Dead things and Haitian frogs. I can kill a mouse, a cockroach, a snake or a tarantula without fear, but once it's dead I'm not going near it! A lizard on my bedroom wall doesn't faze me, but a dead one in the closet makes me run for the door. Strange I know...but dead things just freak me out! Haitian frogs on the other hand have me running around screaming like a scared little girl. I specify Haitian frogs because Canadian frogs have never really bothered me, except that one time in grade 8 when Ben Lanteigne kicked a frog and it came flying right for my face! Haitian frogs are a whole other ball game. They are the kind of frogs you would see in the Toronto zoo. They always look wet and slimy and ha
Read more