We Treat, God Heals

Here am I.  In the dusty dry lands of Southern Ethiopia. Heart Changed. Eyes Opened. How do I even put this into words.  I am here with a team from Engineering Ministries International to do a project at a hospital in Southern Ethiopia.  I have been humbled and I have seen things I will never forget. Not for a thousand lifetimes. If you want to have your heart broken, I must tell you.  Simply visit a rural African hospital.  This one is one of an amazing variety. It is a teaching hospital and they are known as the best orthopedic surgery hospital in all of Ethiopia.  People even travel from surrounding countries to come here for orthopedic surgery. A small but mighty team of ex-pat doctors are here to teach and mobilize Ethiopian doctors and medical professionals.  I have been amazed at hearing the hearts of these doctors.  At seeing their vision and love for this country and wanting to send out trained and qualified local medical professionals. But they are doing even more than that. They are providing discipleship, both to the doctors they teach and the patients they treat.  They tell their patients that they treat, but God heals.  They work in conditions that are sometimes surprising by Western standards and they have this grand vision of how to make medical care in this country and on this continent better and more accessible.

I have watched Ivy League surgeons humbly and quietly serve in some of the most surprising ways.  As they pitch in and help with our dishes even if they aren't even sharing our meal. They are a rare breed in this world.  They are servants of all.

One thing on this project which I had not anticipated was receiving the opportunity to work with a local Ethiopian consulting engineer.  I was feeling overwhelmed by the workload and today found out that our design team was going to work collaboratively with a local engineering firm so that we could design together and then they can take over when it turns to detailed design and construction management.  I learned so much working with an Ethiopian Civil Engineer.  It was an invaluable asset to have a local today when we did building condition assessments. He could communicate with the staff and the patients and I could not. He knew local design practices and I did not. And he also had many questions for me about technical matters and what I had designed on previous eMi projects and what had been successful and what had not. I felt like we worked as a solid and unstoppable team.  And to top it all off, we assessed every toilet and water tap in the extent of this hospital campus.  That I would say is a pretty wonderful day.

The Instructions on the wall of one of the surgical suites. White Paint and a Sharpie are where it's at.

One of the surgery rooms.  Two surgeries happen at once. One teaching surgeon with two teams of surgeons performing procedures. Power failures, non-sterile equipment, non-functioning equipment and many other challenges are not for the faint of heart.