Medical / Health

The plane took off and, full of nervous energy, trepidation and excitement, I felt like I was flying to Neverland. For the first time in my life I was headed somewhere totally foreign. Four weeks before, I hadn’t even heard of this country, tucked deep in Central Asia. But that’s how God works sometimes – He brings surprises, a turn of events, the intercession of His children, to break our focus on the earthly, refocus on the eternal and point the way to something unknown. When the seatbelt light turned off, it signified a break from the safety of my culture and my lifestyle.

An email telling me of an American couple’s prayer for a music therapist to train their orphanage employees had instigated this departure from the norm. What’s a music therapist, you might be thinking. Exactly. Not many people know it’s a real job. The prayer of this couple was so specific that, when I heard of it, my interest was immediately sparked. I’m a music therapist, I thought. I work with kids with disabilities. I can do that.

But the greater reason for my going was that God had shaped me for this. In Ephesians 2:10 we read: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. It was God who created me and moulded my life to be on such a search – He built in me a deep-seated compassion for those in need, an interest in learning about other cultures, and a desire to use my skills and experience to be a blessing to others and a witness of God’s grace and mercy. I had been inspired and challenged by the stories of many other Christians who had served cross-culturally, and I wanted to see if this could be for me too.

On my connecting flight to Central Asia, I knew I was in foreign territory when, as soon as the “fasten seat belts” sign turned off, the duty free vodka started flowing freely. I felt as if I had gate-crashed a family reunion. We landed in freezing conditions and my senses were assaulted – there was nothing familiar to grab on to. Already, my trust in God was rising exponentially; I prayed and prayed! When I finally passed through Immigration and Tom and Kara*, the American couple I had been expecting, were there waiting, I sighed with relief, ready to follow them, to listen and to learn.

During the next three weeks I participated in Tom and Kara’s everyday life. I encountered many stories of how God was using them to change the orphanage from a place of hopelessness to one of life, with love and mercy penetrating its hard walls. In all they said and did, they beautifully intertwined word and deed as they played their role in God’s great story of salvation. I also met people like Zara*, a local believer who lost her husband in a terrible “hack job” surgical operation. She worked for Tom and Kara and exemplified compassion, gentleness and faith. And while I was able to share some of my knowledge and experience, I’m sure I took away the greater share.

So it was that in that country God fanned a spark of interest into a greater desire to explore cross-cultural service. It was those experiences that would influence my future decisions and where I am today, serving God with my husband and young children in South East Asia. Through all this I can see God’s hand, His call to “Follow Me”.

Amy* is a music therapist serving in South East Asia.

*Names have been changed.

Medical / Health

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. … Fear the LORD your God and serve Him.” Deuteronomy 10:17–18, 20.

In a culture where conformity is almost necessary for survival and the competition for resources is instinctive, those who are different, weak or suffer from misfortune are quickly marginalised and cast off without the hope of a second chance, compassion or love. But because of people who fear our God and wish to love as He loves, hope can become a reality and transformation a daily part of life.

Sarah* is mother to a nine-year-old boy with a physical disability. He is unable to walk steadily on his own without a walking frame. But Sarah is reluctant to let him use the walking frame as it would mark him out as a ‘crippled’ person. Sarah has struggled to come to terms with her son’s condition and holds on to the hope that he could be totally cured one day. As a result, Sarah carries him in her arms wherever they go, causing her stress and exhaustion.

Sarah and her son live alone in the city with no connection to family or friends. Her husband is in prison and they are far away from family support. There is neglible government assistance available, and schools can refuse a child enrolment because of their disability. Not only does Sarah need to manage her son’s therapies by herself, she lives in constant fear of debt collectors. In a society where marriage and children are upheld as every woman’s happiness, Sarah is ostracised by those who were once her friends and by strangers who throw insults when they see her son struggling to walk upright. There were many days when Sarah would lock herself and her son at home, avoiding any contact with the outside world and not knowing when or how relief might come.

By chance, Sarah heard about a group of local Christians who had set up a resource centre specifically to support children with disabilities and their parents. This group, in turn, has been supported by the work of Interserve Partners.

Sarah reluctantly attended one event. She was overwhelmed by the support, love and understanding shown to her. For the first time she didn’t feel despised or discriminated against. Gradually Sarah started to smile more, chat with other parents and, most importantly, enjoy her relationship with her son. As Jesus’ love surrounded her, she began to see her son for his strengths rather than his disabilities.

It would be so wonderful for Sarah, and for the people ministering to her, if this was where her story ended. But the road ahead is long and at times very uncertain. Sarah will need to continue to struggle against battles both from without and within. I feel privileged to have had the chance to share, in a very small way, a part of Sarah’s life and the lives of those who continue to minister to her.

*Name has been changed

The author is a psychologist who recently served On Track with Interserve in East Asia

Medical / Health

“Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me!” The words came from the small six-year-old girl who had already been sick for four days. What became devastatingly clear was that Abi had dengue haemorrhagic fever, and had now gone into shock. Her parents had been watching her deteriorate but, like so many of their friends and neighbours, they had no familiarity with the early signs of the disease. Knowledge of these symptoms would have told them that this was not the ‘normal fever’ so commonly experienced in this tropical land. Knowing this information can mean the difference between life and death.

Celebrating a rare ‘day off’, my Saturday was interrupted by a desperate call for blood donors for “a six-year-old girl who was dying from dengue”. The phone calls and emails started and donors began giving blood. Others were on standby. Prayer calls went out – to the local community and further afield – as Abi’s condition remained critical.

Who is this little girl? Abi’s family are Christians who moved to our strict Muslim area just two years ago. Her father worked for a car sales company,who tried to get him to do dishonest things. Instead he resigned, and just a month ago he and his wife started a business here in our city. They had limited contact with the broader Christian community in this city governed by sharia law and felt very alone at this terrible time. Far from extended family and familiar home surroundings, they stood watching their little girl slipping away from them.

Friends of the family kicked into action and Abi’s parents were astonished as strangers came and went from the hospital, donating blood to a little girl they hadn’t met. They heard of people they didn’t know who were praying for them and their local friends surrounded them and kept vigil with them, coordinating donors and updating information.

On Sunday evening, the fifth day, Abi went into a coma. Her parents asked for her to be transferred to the large provincial hospital where there were more facilities in the Intensive Care Unit. Such a transfer in itself would take a toll on Abi’s failing body and more prayer calls went out to more people unknown to the family. Pray for a safe transfer … pray Abi can make the trip … pray the doctors at her hospital will agree to transfer her … and so it went.

As an acute care nurse, I knew that Abi’s chance of surviving medically were about zero. From information received it seemed she had septicaemia, was in shock and her vital organs were failing. From my experience her chance of surviving would indeed require a miracle.
Well, the miracle happened! I cried as I translated the message on my phone that came through the next morning. Expecting that I would hear Abi was now with Jesus, instead I was reading: “Praise God last night Abi was successfully transferred to [the main provincial] hospital. The transfer went well and her condition has begun to improve. She has been calling for her mother and requested food. This morning there will be a result from an X-ray of her lungs and it is hoped that today she can leave the ICU area”.

My husband and I, with our director, were privileged to visit Abi a few days later and hear in more detail the horror and relief of this family’s journey over the past week. Abi’s mother wept as she explained the depth of their agony, the two times Abi was misdiagnosed and how it was not until she felt Abi’s icy body one morning that she knew her child was dying and the health providers finally realised what was happening and began resuscitation.

Abi herself was awake when we visited but had not walked for 10 days. She was discharged to bed rest at home a week later and finally after three weeks of illness was able to walk and return to school.

Abi remembers our hospital visit and still talks about it, and the family has just recently returned to their home city due to work circumstances. The evening before they left they came to our house to share a meal and to say goodbye and once again to say “thank you”. This whole experience has been a blessing to Abi and her family through her recovery and the sense of belonging to a large community of faith that exists in this city where our faith is actively opposed and believers are often discriminated against and persecuted.

It has also been a joy and blessing to those of us who walk alongside the local church in its varied forms of expression here. Thank you to those of you who prayed for Abi and her family, and for the calls to prayer that we send out from this land. Please be encouraged that your prayers are so often answered, even though you may not always hear the results.

We especially say “thank you” to the One who lovingly gave healing to Abi and who has given us the honour to serve in this amazing place with all its joys and challenges.

The author is an Interserve Partner in South East Asia

Medical / Health

Dirk and Nel work in Afghanistan where Dirk is the Executive Director of a registered Christian NGO. Nel supports Dirk and, being a paediatric and psychiatric nurse, also works part time training nurses at a mental health project in the west of Afghanistan. While in Australia they took time to share with GO about their work.

GO: Please tell us about your work.

Dirk: The general purpose of our organisation is to serve the people of Afghanistan. The expatriates in our organisation feel called to work out God’s love in practice on the ground. Because we are a small NGO we focus on the ‘niche’ of finding innovative solutions to problems Afghans face. In partnership with international agencies, we bring in aid funding and volunteer professionals and connect these with local expertise. Innovation happens when Afghan and foreign specialists collaborate to find solutions that are actually right for Afghanistan.

GO: What of the mix of ethnicity and faith backgrounds when expats work alongside Afghan locals?

Dirk: Afghan society has at least 34 (some say 64, depending on how you classify people) different tribes, the major tribes being the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras. In our projects we avoid any perception that we are siding with one tribe. We have about 500 employees, and the foreign volunteers come from all over the world, including Australia, Singapore, Europe, America and Canada. Virtually all the foreigners who work for our organisation have a protestant background, with one or two with a Roman Catholic background.

It is quite a powerful message and example to the Afghans when they see that, as foreigners and Christians with different backgrounds and origins, we are still able, somehow, to work together. Of course that is pretty biblical – through our love for each other people will see that we are God’s people.

GO: What are the communities you relate to in your daily life?

Nel: I relate with the foreigners and Afghan people who work in our organisation, and also Afghan neighbours who live in our apartment block, so I get very natural contact with neighbours and people in the street.

Dirk: For me, there are several communities. First there is Nel and myself as a couple, then there is the management team of six directors and myself – directors for personnel, finance, health support etc. – who I meet with every week. The leadership team involves those directors plus the team leaders of our seven regions. That group meets quarterly to take major decisions in our organisation. The community of leaders of other like-minded agencies in the region also meets regularly.

GO: What difference does it make to meet with other leaders?

We are all members of God’s team here on the ground. We each have our own part to play, but we are working together in a bigger team that has no formal structure, but still it’s there. It’s very enriching to meet because we share similarities but also have different perspectives and contexts. We also very much need each other, just like the various parts of the human body. The hand cannot say to the foot “I don’t need you”.

GO: How has living in a high-risk country shaped you as a community?

Nel: In the wider community, we have a member care network which I am part of. Every spring we arrange workshops such as the ’Transitioning Well’ seminar which prepares the people who leave in June to transition well: for their children in the community, how to say goodbye, and to prepare them for returning to their passport countries.

This year there have been several attacks on foreigners and places where we work and meet. This is a disturbing development because for us as member care people, there is much more to do. We also could not do what we had hoped to do. Actually, in such circumstances we needed each other so much and went through a grieving process together. Grieving alone is much more difficult than grieving together as a community, and feeling the comfort and compassion that comes from the Lord.

Dirk: If you are in trouble together, it is actually very helpful because you can debrief each other in an informal sense. There is a lot said about post-traumatic stress syndrome, but probably not enough about how stress can actually strengthen you. We see that, for instance, in Afghan women. When somebody from a Swiss donor agency visited one of our women’s projects, she commented that our project had strengthened the women and made them very aware and self-confident. Actually those women were already pretty resilient before we had anything to do with them, because they had gone through so much trauma.

Nel: We could call that ‘post-traumatic strength’!

Dirk: That’s not to say that people are not damaged by stress – they are, and irreparably. But that is not the only story.

Nel: It has strengthened them and us. The Afghan people have gone through this so often, and now we as westerners understand them so much better.

Dirk: I think living in an insecure context also corrects our faith, because in many ways we have been influenced by the prosperity gospel and the general tendency of Christians to believe that God will keep them happy and safe. There’s nothing in the Bible to suggest that, if anything there is the opposite in the New Testament; we can expect to suffer. We have worked that out of our faith and our world view, and in Afghanistan suffering is part of our life. Actually our faith is strengthened by it, and our theology of risk and suffering has been adjusted to become more biblical.

GO: What has been your focus as you’ve led this community through difficult times?

Nel: One of our Afghan workers told me that under Dirk’s leadership they felt understood and that he was right beside them as a friend. They also ask me if we could please consider staying a bit longer instead of leaving in September.

Dirk: For me, the overall goal is the long-term sustainability of the organisation, equipping of the Afghan staff, and thriving of the expats. One advantage of working in an organisation that has a long-term perspective is that we hardly ever have to make short-term decisions. Even when we recently drew down a team in Kabul from well over 30 to only 10, the first considerations were the long-term sustainability of our organisation and the wellbeing of the workers. We temporarily withdrew to get through a period of additional risk so that in due course they could return and continue the work. From a western perspective that is counter-cultural. We expect everything instantly but in Afghanistan, where everything takes more time, having that long-term perspective is appropriate.

We often have a shortage of team members, so there is a pressure for newly arrived team members to get on with the job immediately. However, we say, “No, first do six months of language study. If you don’t, then ultimately your work will be hampered. You will not understand or communicate well with the Afghans and our mission will be impossible to implement”.

GO: Over the long term, violence or tragedy or trouble is inevitable, but does it make a difference when they come in quick succession?

Dirk: It does make a difference because from research and psychology we know that trouble and stress add up. There’s even research that assigns a stress level percentage to stressors such as a bad illness in the family, divorce or losing a job. We have been able to cope with quite a lot over the last few years, but we don’t know whether we can cope if there is one more serious incident. We have therefore made sure that there was always backup for us.

Nel: We were recovering from an attack on one of the places where we meet, and then one month later three of our friends were killed at the hospital in Kabul, and that became a bit much for a number of people in the community.

GO: How has your life in community helped you understand yourself and your role in God’s work?

Dirk: The first thing is that it is God’s work, not ours. We only see glimpses of what is going on, but we must be obedient to the call. We are called to this role, and even if there are many things that are not good enough or that are wrong, that doesn’t really matter; we do the best we can.

Nel: The different parts of the body all have input in God’s work in different ways. It is very special being among God’s children from many different parts of the world. We are the family of God and we don’t find that in our home country, not like we have experienced in Afghanistan in the wider community.

GO: How do you see the future for Afghanistan?

Dirk: People in the Global North generally have very negative perceptions about the future. They think that once the foreign troops are withdrawn at the end of 2014 everything will collapse, but that is only one possibility. If the new president negotiates a settlement with the armed opposition, there would be the least civilian casualties and the best future. If the country splits up into regions run by different warlords that wouldn’t be too bad as long as they leave each other at peace. The worst scenario is if the regions and their powerful warlords start fighting each other in a civil war. While that may happen, and in the west the perception is that that’s the only option, it’s definitely not the only scenario.

Nel: The Afghan people are fed up with the years of war. The younger generation particularly have this longing for change. Many people voted in the first round of elections. We saw on TV that it was a rainy day, and they stood in line for a few hours in some places – many women in burkhas, even a 69-year-old woman who had come on a donkey to the polling station. Though many people have given up on Afghanistan, the Afghan people have not. They are very resourceful, very resilient, and humanly speaking that’s one of the most hope-giving aspects of the country. Of course we believe that God does not give up on any people, on any country, and He’s at work and He’ll continue working there.

GO: What is your prayer for Afghanistan?

Dirk: Firstly, the biblical prayer, that there will be Shalom and everybody will enjoy the fruits of their own labour, and live in their own house. Or, to use the words in Micah 4:4: “Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree, and no-one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.”

Secondly, over the last six years, I have realised how much our work on the ground is often in the limelight, but we are actually part of a much bigger family, which includes our international partner agencies. It’s only together that we can do this work. We may get all the attention, but without the folk at home we could not do our part on the ground. God’s work is the work of the whole body of Christ. Everyone needs to play his or her part. Many are doing that. My prayer is that all God’s people will realise that they have a contribution to make to God’s work!