Today we joined some boarding children in going to the hospital. The time with the kids was great. They were wonderful to talk to and loved to sing. On the way to the hospital they all sang on the bus. The people along the streets all would stop and stare at the bus caring singing children and wazongos. The whole morning I had two girls holding my hands..Mercy and Grace. Interesting that the things I pray that the Lord would grant me and what He so willingly and abundantly bestows…were holding my hands as I walked through the gates to the hospital. What my eyes took in was the reality of a fallen world. A world of pain and sickness… death. At home I would hear of stories and see pictures of malnourished babies and children who looked like they were newborn babies but really were 3 or 4 years old. Stories impersonal and distant that’s what they were. I thought I had compassion I thought I felt misery for those suffering people, but then I came to Kenya, I walked into that hospital and I saw what those stories had failed to relay. Helplessness, truth and agony. I along with 8 other children and Nate went into this room where there where six beds of babies and their nurses mothers or relatives. One woman per child taking care of them. Each child was sick, some had yellow eyes all had sad looks and painful stares. Most were no bigger than a 6 month old, one little boy was the size of a 6 year old. I don’t know what his real age was. I immediately went over to a bed and began talking to one of the babies, it just lay there in pain. I went over to the next bed and held a little baby in a yellow shirt named “Grace” this baby was adorable with chocolate eyes and soft skin. But it was sick with phenomena and malaria. The next baby was Benjamin, the little girls from Life held him and loved on him. It was so good to see children loving other children. The mothers appreciated it. Because I don’t speak Swahili or Kidogo Kiswahili the other Children translated for me. The baby that held my attention the most and captured my heart was a orphan. It was just lying on the bed motionless, looking lifeless. Barely bigger than a newborn…so frail and helpless. I assumed it was very young. But when I asked how old the answer sent my system and heart into a shock. This baby wasn’t a newborn but rather 2 years old. It was so frail, breathing heavily with it’s eyes rolled back. It’s little hand was so tiny little bigger than my thumb. I sat on the edge of the bed in shock and despair. I stroked the baby's head praying away the sickness, begging God to heal this baby, wishing that there was something I could do. Tears filled my eyes as I looked around at all the babies and helpless to do anything, knowing that they would all be dead soon. Something so simple so easy to cure ends in death. Sickness…what an enemy. I sat in that room and stroked the orphans head and could almost feel the pain and sorrow the Lord feels for these little babies. These precious babies that have been diseased and stricken with pain. He holds them all, He loves them all. As I sat with the children and prayed over them I thought of my nieces and nephews and if they were lying lifeless on this bed, if they looked at me with these painful eyes. I could not bear it.
The things I saw today I pray will always be with me and I pray hat God will use me in some way to help to save these babies. There must be something that I can do. Lord Jesus these are your children, receive them Lord.