| A week later, after I had settled
into my new home in Mulanje, I shared the March 3 entry from My
Utmost for His Highest with my housemate, Sue Makin. The
Scripture is from John 21:17, when Jesus, having asked Peter if
he loves Him, commands him to “feed my sheep.” Oswald
Chambers writes: “This is love in the making. The love of
God is un-made, it is God’s nature. When we receive the
Holy Spirit He unites us with God so that His love is manifested
in us.” He goes on to say, “don’t profess about
the marvelous revelation you have had, but—‘feed my
sheep.’”
We are all called to be in the business of feeding sheep. I have
watched Dr. Makin tending to the patients who appear at her exam
door, barefoot, in threadbare clothes, usually much sicker than
any of the patients I saw in the United States, and she cares
for them in her thoughtful, practical, and compassionate way.
I have seen a young woman with Kaposi’s sarcoma which has
invaded her lungs, struggling to take a breath, holding her newborn
in her arms. I have seen a couple, married for 17 years with six
children, discovering that they are both HIV positive. One woman
who spoke English well had come to Sue because she is pregnant
and has had multiple miscarriages and Sue is trying to prevent
another. Sue apologized that, having met her once before, she
had forgotten her name. The woman looked up at her and said, “I
will never forget you.”
This is a country where the World Health Organization reports
the average life expectancy for males is 39.8 years and for females
is 40.6 years and where it is estimated that 15 percent of the
population has HIV, although among the sick we see, the percentage
is much higher. Here my neighbors have no nice houses or fine
cars or good clothes to hide behind. Their daily struggles and
their suffering are all too visible to me as we drive past them
or sit with them in an exam room. There are the lame, the beggars,
the mentally ill, those living and dying with AIDS, the starving
and the poor all around me. They are on foot or two to a bicycle.
And I see Christ walking with them. He looks no different than
they do. “Feed my sheep,” he implores me. As Oswald
Chambers writes, “There is no relief and no release from
this commission” but “it is impossible to weary God’s
love.”
I am awaiting my “official” orientation, which will
be dictated by the Nurses’ Council. It is expected that
I will be able to spend two weeks at Thyolo with Medecins Sans
Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) to learn more about treating
patients with antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) here in Malawi since
we hope to start a clinic for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
at Mulanje soon. I will also be assisting Dr. Makin in the area
of cervical cancer prevention by teaching nursing students and
nurses how to do a procedure called VIA (visualization of the
cervix with acetic acid), which allows healthcare providers to
visualize precancerous lesions and treat them with cryosurgery
in the same setting.
I begin my time in Malawi with the knowledge that my neighbors
are a beloved people of God, and I am here for some purpose I
cannot fully know. I ask for your prayers that I will take this
love that God has given me for them and spend it out.
Charlotte
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