The Things That Stick With You

I really was going to try to write about something other Africa this time.  Really I was.  The Other Sheep even made it easier for me this time.  They had a pretty big update to the layout since 1942 in that they got rid of the region-by-region reports.  The stories themselves changed to be a bit more interest grabbing and a bit less report-ish.  And still, all I really wanted to write about is a story out of Africa.  So here it goes, I guess.

Mary Schmelzenbach writes about a mother and baby coming into the dispensary after an incredibly long journey (especially for two sick people).  Schmelzenbach reports, “Both were suffering from scurvy and malnutrition.  The six months old babe weighed only seven pounds, and the mother was only skin and bones.” Soon after their admittance into the hospital, the baby died.  The mother was unable to go to her child's grave because she was running a fever upwards of 105.  The story was heartbreaking, and, honestly, Mary offered very little consolation.  She made no effort to pull the mood up.  It was obvious that this episode dug into her skin and made her hurt.

1947.  This is what was going on in Swaziland in 1947.  I went in 2012.  I would venture to say that this kind of scenario is one that continues to happen over and over and over again every day in the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in that very same country.

I guess when I read The Other Sheep I hope that every time I will either come across wonderful, heartwarming stories of missionary success or that I will find stories that I am easily able to reconcile with the thought that things have gotten so much better.  This time I am unable to reconcile.  It makes me so intensely sad I’m honestly having a hard time finding the words I need to express it. 

This is completely unacceptable.  Completely.