It was a blessing to be back and able to land on the airstrip, which we weren’t sure would even be open. The people were extremely thankful that we were back they all came tp greet us and help us Our house was standing and even though we had lots of cleaning to do we were able to just walk in and sleep without having to worry about anything. As the week progressed on I was called down for a snakebite. She had been in the jungle and was collecting greens to eat. It took them two hours to paddle to me. Her husband had a tourniquet wrapped on the side and top of her calf. He told me he wanted me to wrap her leg as quick as I could and of course I did as well as pull with the extractor . After sitting there with it with her for an hour she seemed OK so I went up to my house. Few hours later I was called back down because the paralysis set into her eyes and her neck. She was able to move as well as swallow just her eyes were very heavy and could not stay open. Her neck seem to be as what she said dry. I told him not to cut open any area of her leg for that’s their way of letting the “black blood” come out of her (sorcery) and I told him not to undo the wrap for the poison was obviously going into her system and this is what it was doing to her. I stayed with her for another three hours she never progressed for the worse and seemed stable so I went back to me house. The next morning I went down and she was still alive but they literally held her eyes open the entire night, never gave her water, took the wrap off her leg and cut multiple times around where the snake bit her. I was so angry, upset, and overwhelmed by the fact that I gave them information that could help save her life and they chose to do it their way. They told me they were going to bring her down to another village where a nurse would be. I truly just believe they didn’t trust what I had to say. It was over 24 hours from when she was bitten the fact that she’s still alive shows that she will live. Normally a person dies between one to 24 hours later. Around the same time I was called to one of the older women who had fainted. I went down to visit her and was pretty sure she had malaria. I gave her the malaria test and sure enough it came out positive. Thankfully I’m able to give her malaria medicine and know that she should be getting better. Over that weekend I felt very stressed which brings on anxiety to me making me fear snakebites and malaria. What really gets me is how these people are so lost and refuse to acknowledge the Gospel. Only Christ can save them and I understand that but I could feel me faith was weak, not knowing how to trust Him in the midst of this hardship. This struggle seems to come a lot as I look back in my journal. Caleb and I continually ask the Lord why it’s taking so long for Him to save? My constant prayer, “Lord guide me through the struggle help me I need you more than ever because I feel so stripped of all things.”
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cornthians 12:10