The Victory in Victoria

Two years ago I was able to blog about an amazing woman of God whose name is Victoria. Dr. Dunn and I had the pleasure of getting to know her during the last trip. She is a chaplain at the hospital and her story has had such an impact on my life that she was one of the first people I hoped to find here. I've been waiting, because I heard she had been gone due to illness.

Yesterday, I glanced at the hundreds of people in clinic. You can't even see the building structure when the clinic is this full. All you see is a sea of bodies with needs on their perspiring faces as they are dressed in beautiful bold-colored garments. Yesterday, I decided to listen to the devotion that the people in clinic hear everyday at 9:30 am. That is a time for everyone who comes for the day to hear the Good News of the Gospel. As I turned the corner to standing room only, I saw the face of a woman passionately inspired by the Holy Spirit as she spoke of this Good News available to all. She spoke with love and true excitement. As I stood behind rows of people and comprehended not a single word of their language, I found myself smiling from ear to ear. I somehow knew from our common bond as Christians that the woman was giving them the greatest news they have ever heard. Victoria was back--with victory in Christ.

She shared her testimony with Dr. Dunn and me two years ago that at a young age she grew up worshipping spirits as her father did. One night she had a dream that an evil man was saying "you are mine" and held a gun toward her. In her dream she was fearful, when suddenly a calm voice came from some light behind them saying, "no, child, you are Mine." She took this dream to her dad the next day who said that light was obviously the spirits trying to help her. It wasn't until she went to a church and happened to tell the pastor about the dream that he clarified no, it was Jesus. She surrendered her life to Jesus then and even more so later in her life. Since then, she has been a chaplain ushering thousands into eternity with Christ as she daily shares with them.

Today, Victoria was used again. I, as Dr. Hewitt has at times, have been following a child suffering from severe malnutrition. The skin was peeling off the child's body and he had horrible sores over his mouth. They have even had him on experimental tuberculosis meds here in hopes that he would get better. I knew his skin was getting super-infected, so I added more antibiotics. He has not been eating, so we added nutrition by tube feeds through his nose today.

This morning between procedures, I was talking with Astrid and heard a loud cry from a woman. We ran to the crying woman who was standing near the bed of this child in the pediatric ward. It was his grieving mother. The child died this morning. It was sudden. If we were at home in the U.S., someone would have intubated him or put a breathing tube in. However, the child did not recover, when the nurse put blow by oxygen over his nose. I knew this child was literally living by a thin thread. It still hurts, though. This is what we see here. He gives and takes away. Either way, we praise His name and are blessed to be here. I found myself saying this two years ago many times. Today, Jodi and Astrid were blown away by the news and how tragic things can turn so quickly. We cling to God, trusting His plan that we cannot change, and we know He is infinitely good and infinitely God.

I later found Victoria praying over the child's mom. Thank you, Lord, for using Victoria here. Again, I heard her speaking Mampruli to the mom. Of course, I was clueless about the words yet I was confident about the context of what she was trying to relay to this hurting mom. The mom is a Christian and knows her child is in heaven. As expected, she is still in much pain. Please pray for this family.