i believe He heals

last week, a 15-year old girl drowned in a small pond right outside our compound fence. she was not one of the Iris children, but a community child who attended our primary school. i was getting ready to wash clothes when i saw a stampede of children run from the school across the compound to the pond. as i made my way over, i heard crying and murmurings "she died..." i got there in time to see some school teachers pulling her body out of the water and i waded through as quickly as i could, panic in my heart, softly praying. i didn't understand how someone that size could drown in a relatively shallow pool, but she couldn't swim and when she slipped and fell in, she panicked (apparently the reason many people drown when they shouldn't have). the girls with her ran to get the headmaster, but by the time he arrived, it was too late. i performed CPR and mouth-to-mouth on her for some time, to no avail. i and several others prayed over her as well, also to no avail. we ended up transporting her body to the local hospital morgue, such an eerie experience. even though i had no relationship with this girl, a child's death is a painful tragedy. on the way to the hospital, i kept thinking "if those girls had just gone to the guards (who were right near the pond) instead of running all the way back to the school....if there was a defibrillator in the hospital...." it just seemed like such a senseless death.

around here, there's no modern medicine, no ambulances, no good roads. there's nothing to lean on and no other option except the Lord's power. it's so difficult for me to reconcile the fact that i believe God to heal and raise the dead, and fully believed for it in this situation, and the fact that it didn't happen. i don't understand why, when it truly is the only hope. i guess this incident has caused me to hunger for that more, for God to move in power and manifest Himself among us, to petition God and give Him no rest (Isaiah 62:7). the people here see so much death and are so heavy-laden as a result that they desperately need to witness the life that Jesus brings to alleviate some of that burden. i guess there's not much else to do but believe God to be who He says He is and continue to cry out for Him to come.