René

While visiting a Sunday morning service in a little church in the community of Amazonas near Makuma, I met an old lady who was very anxious about her grandson René who lived with her. The grandma was very poor and had no money and no husband to care for her. On the way home from church we stopped to see the 15-year-old boy. He was in a serious condition with high fever, pain and five or six big abscesses in his body. The biggest one was bursting with pus under the skin. The poor boy was crying loudly. We told them he needed to come to Hospital Vozandes-Shell. Grandma said they had no money for the flight or for the hospital. Some of my friends in Sweden had given me money to pay the expenses of any needy person. I thanked God and felt this was the opportunity, and we told the grandma. After some talking we all agreed that René would come back to Shell with us the next day. The next day came but he never showed up. What had happened? With sorrow in my heart I had to leave Makuma without him.

After nearly a week we heard that the family had taken René to a witch doctor, but he had got worse so now they wanted to send him to Vozandes. Soon we received a call from the MAF hangar to send the ambulance for a patient. It was René, and he was in a very bad condition. He was taken to the operating room immediately. 1½ liters of pus was drained from the abscesses. Without this surgery he would have surely died soon. He was put on strong antibiotics and after thirteen days was sent home again, healthy and happy. This was his first time outside his village; everything was new and frightening for him and some days he cried and longed for his grandma. Our hospital chaplain had good contact with him and shared the gospel with him.