Abused

Every year while I was in high school I had Isaiah 61 prophesied over my life, by more then one person. "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,"Isaiah 61:1. Just look at how powerful that verse is, and that's just the first verse! Every year that was prophesied over my life, but I never really understood the meaning, until now. During my trip here I have just gotten a taste of what God has planned. One thing I noticed about that verse is that it never says, "And it will come as a breeze to you, your life will be easy and painless and you can just skip and dance through life." I've been looking, I can't find that part of the verse anywhere! In fact, it says just the opposite.
Yesterday was the hardest day I have experienced so far. I arrived at Smile in the morning and a driver came to take me to the hospital to help look after 5 of our Smile Africa children. Every month we take 5 children who are HIV positive to get a check up and get more medicine. I heard a honk at the gate, so I grabbed my bag and headed for the door to head to the hospital. I walked past the clinic and I noticed Bogere's mother sitting there. I asked her if she was sick and she handed me a rolled up paper. I opened it and it was a police report. The report told me that Bogere's mom, Tereza, had been beaten constantly for 2 days in a row by her husband. It also said that the husband had destroyed her medicine that she needed to be taking for HIV, as well as the card that allowed her to keep getting more medicine. My heart was pounding so fast and my heart broke into a million pieces as I watched her sitting down with tears and blood on her face and pain shooting through her body. Mama Ruth told me to take her with me to the hospital. I held my hand out for her to grab onto, but she didn't even have the strength to do that. As she stood up and yelled with pain, I held her arm for support. In the little Swahili that I know I asked her where the pain was and she told me that it was her back. So I carefully took her to the car and we drove to the hospital. I sat in the front seat and quietly cried my eyes out. I could not believe what I was seeing. As soon as we got to the hospital I took her to see the doctor and I went to tend to the children.
When I was with the children in the waiting area everything was fine. I could not get Tereza out of my mind. My heart was breaking for her. When it was finally our turn I took the children to the doctors office where they were going to get measured and get new medicine. Bogere was misbehaving like I have never seen before. He was out of control. When the doctor would talk to him, he would not answer back, instead he just threw himself on the floor, then pretended to be hurt, started crying, then started hitting everyone in the room. Everyone in the waiting area was just starring at me try to calm this boy down. Finally Bogere just ran out of the room and took off. I was definitely not going to chase after him, so I just focused on the 4 other children that were with the doctor. The doctor's office was giving free food to the children, so I got 4 plates of food and handed them to the children that were behaving. I look at Bogere who was keeping a distance and I asked him if he wanted food. He didn't answer me, so I took that as a no and I continued tending to the other children. Bogere then picked up 2 stones, out of anger he threw a stone in our direction. I didn't even know what to do. I was shocked. I wasn't even sure why he got so upset all of a sudden. Then it dawned on me. Bogere probably witnessed his mom getting beaten nearly to death. This little boy was so angry, he was devastated. Bogere sits in his house and watches as his fathers rapes his mother and beats her every night. Then I expect him to come to Smile in the morning and be well behaved and happy. I felt so bad for my sweet boy. Bogere is just a little kid and he does not know how to express how he feels. Instead of punishing him because of his behavior, I just walked over to him, dropped to my knees and hugged him. I held him so tight and refused to let him go. He is used to getting beaten for throwing stones or hurting people, so this was confusing to him. This is exactly what I felt like he needed. He tried to get away from my hug, he was fighting me and trying to break free and then he just collapsed in my arms and cried. As I held onto his tiny body, tears rolled down my face and I said, "I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry." I picked him up and brought him over to the other children, he had a plate of food and calmed down a little bit. While the children were eating I went over to check on Tereza, the mother. The doctor was through with her, so he handed me all her medicine and a new medical card for the HIV medicine. I carried her to a tree where there was grass and shade so she could lay down and relax. I went across the street and bought her some food and juice and handed her the medicine that she needed to take. I looked at her and said in Swahili, "You are beautiful and Jesus loves you." Tereza just smiled at me and began eating. While I was walking to the children I heard a scream that sounded like Gloria, Bogere's little sister. So I ran to where the children were. Gloria had tripped over broken cement and had fallen down. She was not hurt, she was more scared, so I bent down and picked her up. As I was coming back up with her, I did not notice that there was loose barb wire hanging down from the fence. So as I lifted my head up, the barb wire cut my forehead open. Please get this visual, it's really priceless. I have a screaming baby in my arms and blood pouring out of my head. We were quite the scene.
After our hospital extravaganza we drove back to Smile Africa. All the kids went to play with their friends and Tereza went back home. Pastor Ruth came out of the office and told me that a man who writes for the newspaper was here and he wanted to interview me about my work with Bogere and Smile. She informed me that he was going to put the story in next week's paper. This was very exciting! I spent the next hour with the newspaper writer. We talked and he took pictures of Bogere and me.
Finally my day was done and Mama Ruth drove Julian and I back to the hotel. When I walked through the doors of my hotel, it looked like I had been hit by a train! I was covered in dirt from head to toe, my hair was going in all directions and blood was still pouring out of my head. But GOD is still good! When I got to my room and turned on the water for a shower....HOT WATER!! Praise Jesus!!! I was so excited!! The words out of my mouth when I felt the hot water were, " Oh Jesus loves me! Thank you God!"
So as you can see, this was the hardest day that I have experienced so far. God never promised me that it would be easy, He did promise however, that I would get the strength I needed and that He would never leave me. He was right there with me, through it all.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11