Some Stay True

In any country where there are different religions, opinions, and beliefs, there are certain pressures to maintain the expected lifestyle of one’s peer group. Breaking the norms of a social group, especially religiously, can have dangerous effects and cause someone in that group to walk away from their newfound faith. In Christian mission, this pattern is exceedingly well known and recognized, as reflected in the article “Some Stay True”.

               

A little boy arrived at the hospital with a possible broken neck from falling out of a tree. Happily, he only had a tender neck and a bump on the head. However, the doctor recognized the little boy’s mother. Her name was Christina.

              

The doctor was working when Christina was brought into the hospital, just having delivered and with many injuries. She is described as “a heathen woman, dirty, unkempt, with witch doctor cuts crisscrossing her abdomen, red mud all over her, vomiting profusely the black, sickening medicine concocted of roots, crushed beetles, and what not, that the witch doctor had given her…” Her condition declined rapidly and the doctors and nurses didn’t know what to do for her except put her on an IV and pray. Then they began to operate.

I’ll spare you the gruesome details because it gets gross and I don’t know how many of you have tender tummies. But she pulled through the surgery, and after several days of uncertainty, the woman began to recover. A week later she told the doctor, with tears in her eyes, that she had chosen Christ and she knew her sins were forgiven. She then chose her new name; Christina.

               

She had remained a Christian in this place of witch doctors and magic and superstition for eight long years and was still growing strong. Christina appears to be the perfect example of the influence that medical missions can have on individuals, and how some Christians make a true life-long commitment to Christ.