Mali Team Update - Feb 24

By Steve Bakunas

Greetings from Koutiala, today started out pretty much as normal with morning devotions and prayer but today something was very different. Our morning devotions are held outside on a long patio where 20-30 people gather while seated on long benches. Today, as I looked across all the faces of those gathered there I noticed one face that I wasn't familiar with - - it was the face of a 12 year old boy, a boy that was trapped in a body that was severely malnutritioned ....... below his small, fragile face there was nothing but skin and bone. Having no knowledge of the situation I could only think of one thing to do and that was to pray. As this young boy sat there next to the hospital pediatrician he appeared somewhat distraught yet relieved that he was at the hospital being cared for. During the course of our devotions I learned that this name was James and that his relatives had brought him to the hospital to be examined. As I later found out, this young boy, who had been previously seen and operated on by doctors at another hospital, was suffering from some sort of intestinal blockage that was preventing any sort of food consumption to occur.

I thought about James many times through the course of my day today and, when I did, I stopped and prayed. I prayed that James had the strength to make it, the will to survive. Tonight at our weekly Bible study with the local missionaries I asked that they be in prayer for James - - most of them were familiar with the situation and gladly offered up their prayers of support. Dr. Nessleroades, who was in attendance, told us that James was suffering from some sort of intestinal blockage that he was unfamiliar with - - he could see the mass on the xray but it didn't provide enough evidence as to what it might be. Dr. Nessleroades struggled with the fact that if this boy had been seen by another doctor just a few short weeks ago why hadn't the mass been removed then? You see, medical records in Africa aren't anything like those we're accustomed to in America - - doctors don't have access to a data base full of patient information ......in this case, the only record and results of the operation were the scar's on this boys body and input from his relatives.

I ask for your prayers for James tonight - - that God would choose to heal his body and in doing so it would be His Name that is Glorified. I've asked Dr. Nessleroades if I could spend some private time with James tomorrow morning following devotions - - I feel this incredible compulsion to sit by his side, hold his hand and pray over him. Please remember James in your prayers.