I wonder sometimes how many people or parents have/had the opportunity or pleasure to be able to read a story or just pray or just sit and chat with your teenager before you go to bed?? I am one of those privileged dads that can say that the boys were enjoying the books I read to them. I am not well-read, never liked it but there are a few books out there that even I can live with. We read books like “Wild at Heart”, “Beautiful Outlaw”, and “Unfiltered” and now we are going through “The Gift of Pain.” We also read through countless Bible chapters about war as Gideon always loves war and all the faith guys of the day. Missionary biographies were another good one that we got on YouTube. For once in my lifetime, I must say the digital age also got some nice stuff hahaha.
Coming back to “The Gift of Pain”. Sitting with Noah in the mornings I relive that book over and over every day. Over these years we had the privilege to work with a lot of people that were either in pain or did not have any pain. Like Paul Brand says: ”We need to thank God for pain.” Some days it is not very comforting to know that pain is a good thing as I need to see how Noah, even after using topical Lidocaine to numb the wound, still cries out from the pain as I try my best to clean her cancer wound.
The cancer is getting in deep now as her one arm is swollen as well and all her lymph nodes are really painful. I give her good pain meds but it’s still painful. That is why I experience it a few times that I wish some of my patients did not have pain. Seeing them suffer like this makes me sad.
Because of the heat, we are sitting outside her little palace under the trees. She cleared a nice spot for us and we can visit in the shade. Continue to pray for her as she is going through a rough time. I’ve seen these Khmer people’s resilience to survive and it always amazes me how they can get around in such trauma. We in the Western world have a lot to learn.
Toinette is busy in the village and comes home drenched from the heat. She always comes home with stories from their house visitations. Today she shared how an old grandma told them how they went to school even before Pol Pot. She was so happy to tell the story as she also knew the grandma of Mary, one of the staff that was with Toinette. Together they did a lot of fun things.
What hid us hard at this time is how few people know the Lord. Just yesterday we heard in a sermon that we need to boldly proclaim God’s word. Ouch, that was hard to hear. Here is Uncle Phil Robertson in Uncanceled. “So when you ask why I’m so bold, this is it. I am bold because I am convinced that God’s love for me is so potent it compelled Jesus to leave the glories of heaven. He descended to this sin-cursed planet to redeem me, to buy me back from the Evil One who had taken me captive to do his will instead of God’s.”
Love to you all and may God bless you in this week to come.
Rossouw-clan
1 comment:
God’s blessings continue to be with you!
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