Road to Rwanda----"The works of God might be displayed in" us

 

It has been an uphill climb since our really great flight home.  (Remember we had whole rows to lie down on the long flight between Ethiopia to Chicago?)  After getting in at 9 p.m. on July 5, I had tremendous diarrhea by the next morning.  This continued for 4 days. On Saturday night I was up to the bathroom every single hour.  Sunday  morning I started at an urgent care, who tested for covid (negative) but insisted I go to the ER because they could not make the tests I needed.  After many “unproductive” hours at the ER I went home, only to return 2 days later ready to give my sample. Of course the medical personnel were calling the Center for Disease Control, because I was flying in, sick, from Africa. (Who knows I could have been patient zero for the next pandemic?)  They promised the test results would follow me to my next location (from SC to MA) but they never have arrived.  At this point, I seem fine and I assume it was some sort of strange flu that no one else had/has.

Which brings us to the current situation. Peter’s (second son in SC) wife, Bobbi,  has been 2 nights in the hospital with a bowel obstruction.  This was finally diagnosed after several days of severe pain and 2 ER visits. (That brings the ER count for family in the past 2 weeks to 4.)  At least her pain is less, but if they cannot resolve the issue any other way, she will have to have surgery.

And to Paul’s (eldest son) mother-in-law here in MA where we are currently.   Deb was in a critical accident that crushed both ankles and also resulted in a horrible compound fracture of her femur.  She has been in Trauma Care since Sunday night, having undergone one surgery to stabilize. (That brings our family ER count to at least 5, and if you count the intermediate steps, probably 6.)  They have to wait for her swelling to go down before they can begin the extensive, extensive reconstruction.  She is well medicated, but faces months of rehab and great changes in her quality of life. 

Why?  I doubt we will ever know this side of heaven. (And that I ask “why” is a relational cultural question resulting from the way we have lived our lives for the past 5 decades.  It is even a Scriptural question: John 9: As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.)

It is a difficult, difficult time for all of us, and particularly for our children.  Our family is to be together in Gatlinburg, TN the week of July 4.  I wonder how many will be able to make it?  I wonder what further support Rick and I personally can be?  I wonder how “The works of God might be displayed in” us?