Thursday, April 16, 2009

To the States and Back

I have been a bit distracted the last week with focus on a personal medical problem with my artificial hip joint. It has been distracting me lots the last 3 months with intermittent pain and trouble walking. Last week it got it got so bad that I was unable to walk without the assistance of crutches. It came on a bad time as Beth and Kelsey had planned a nice family holiday to go and visit Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, one of the most beautiful areas in Africa and in fact the world.

Beth arranged to get our airline tickets and a couple of nights in a hotel just a couple of days prior to the trip. When we woke up the morning of the proposed trip I had difficulty even walking to the bathroom so I decided to push the panic button and send them off to Zimbabwe without me. I was a little concerned about their safety traveling without me and though this was an experience I was looking forward to with Kelsey since she had never been there, I just knew that it would not be wise for me to travel with them and walk along the wet slippery surface next to the falls. Being a pain specialist, I had an adequate supply of narcotics and started taking some hydrocodone when helped my pain considerably. A couple of hours after Beth and Kelsey left for the Johannesburg airport I became more and more anxious that something really serious was wrong with the pelvis or hip joint so I called our travel agent to see if she could get me a flight back to the states that day. I have told my elderly parents multiple times that if they really needed me I could be home within 48 hours. I was in the Des Moines airport just 24 hours after calling my travel agent. No one knew that I was coming back to Iowa--not even Beth and Kelsey. I did send them an email hoping that they would have email access in Zimbabwe, however I later found out that there was no internet service available to them. Fortunately Beth had been concerned about how I was doing and called and spoke with our lodge manager before getting on the plane in Johannesburg so she at least knew that I was just 5 hours behind her headed for the same airport. I was amazed at how emotional I became at leaving Africa so suddenly. I had this terrible thought in my head that I would have to have emergency surgery and that it was possible that I would never be able to return to the country and people that I love so much. I found myself so emotional that I was unable to speak about my concerns. I would just begin to tear up and could not speak. I was embarrassed as I am supposed to be the leader here and many people depend upon me making good decisions about many things here in Africa. It was then that I realized just how much I loved our ministry and working here in Africa.

I was able to get into see my orthopedic surgeon on Thursday after getting home on Wednesday. He told me that the furthest anyone had previously traveled to see him was from Arkansas. I was looking over my own x-ray while waiting to see him and it looked exactly like my last x-ray just 5 months previously. All of the sudden I felt amazing relief that I may not have as big a problem as I had imagined. I was further relieved when my doctor came in and agreed with me. He reassured me that I likely had another stress fracture in my pelvis which I have experience on at least 4 previous occasions all of which have healed in a couple of months by walking on crutches or sometimes even a cane. After considerable discussion with him he predicted that I have about 2 years service left in my 24 year old prosthesis. I was overwhelmed with joy. I can get a lot done in 2 years. He even predicted that after 3 or 4 months of replacement recovery that I would have an excellent chance of returning to work in Africa.

It was Easter weekend and I realized yet again that I serve a God of second chances. There have been a number of times in my life when I thought my good days were past and then God cleans the slate and I have a fresh start at life again. WOW, most of you know what I mean by feeling that you have hit bottom and then have a redo. I enjoyed some great time with my parents, sister, 2 of my children and all of my grandchildren. On Easter Sunday the pastor’s message was on the greatest comeback ever. It was like his whole message spoke of just what I had been through. I sat there thinking that this was the best church service I have ever been to. For Easter I did not go to my home church but to the Lutheran Church of Hope so that I could attend their Saturday evening service and still visit my parents on Sunday. I now look back on this 5 day whirlwind trip back to the States and understand that there were many reasons that God wanted me to make this trip. I just returned to Africa last night and have never felt such an appreciation of having just enough good health to do the work that God has called me to do. I may be on crutches and feeling a bit of pain and my head is spinning from jetlag but I have never felt such joy as I felt knowing that I was able to return to my wonderful wife and our home here in Africa.

During the night I was unable to sleep and got up to work on my emails and received a note from my good friend Jacques who was in Madagascar telling me that he had found thousands of starving children there in need of our help. Here in South Africa we see many children who are chronically malnourished and about three quarters the height and weight they should be for their age. However, these children in Madagascar demonstrated the signs of acute starvation with their large pot bellies and discolored hair. He reported to me that many children are dying there every day. It is a nation of 18 million people and thousands of children are dying and yet the world has not taken notice. That was like a big shot of adrenalin to me; I start writing everyone I knew who had anything to do with feeding kids around the world. One of my gifts from God is in being a good networker; I was amazed at how many people I knew to ask for help. We also have a couple of good prayer nets and I sent out the word for everyone to begin praying for Madagascar. I know that our prayers will be answered and I can envision several large shipping containers making their way across the ocean. If any of you reading this can help feed these kids please write to me or call me ASAP.

This weekend one of our largest teams of this year will arrive from the Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines. We will be working in the Rustenburg area, which is one of my favorite places to work. Jacques was living in Rustenburg when I first met him 5 years ago. My friend David Betzer developed one of the best orphanages in the world that I always love to show to our teams from the US. I am excited to be able to work with Lutheran Church of Hope and their missions director, my good friend Brad Krehlik.

This afternoon I took a short walk around our property and checked on the progress of our Bob and Lela Thompson ambassador campus. The builders have completed the thatch roof on our first home. It is really beautiful; in a couple of weeks the roofs on all four structures should be completed.

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