Human Nature…
It was mid-afternoon and hot, while the line of new patients slowly disappeared. My mind wandered back to a previous days reading of a quote Charles Dickens once said. A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
Our friend, Julius works as an assistant research laboratory technician at Agule. Beating his feet, he works hard, not for money but because of an earnest God given passion to help and enable his community. I find Julius typically most joyful in the mornings. I’ve rarely seen him smile more than when he shakes my hand upon our arrival to the clinic. His medical knowledge, humility and persistence continually amaze me.
With Julius, for what was most definitively about an hour, Amy and I listened, in the sweltering heat of the laboratory, to the science, stories and faces of the deadly disease we have come to know so well. Malaria.
Immediately in our discussion, it became apparent there was more at stake than our previous expectations carried.
The economic times are very bad and people may get very sick, Julius stated.
Agule community is unique. More and more, our Malaria has become drug resistant so, our friends and children are left… they can not pay for new treatment…it is too much, the drugs are too expensive…the women and the babies…how can we help them… they will be left with nothing…nothing but death.
I looked into the glare of a small tear beginning to form on the crest of his eyelid. The sadness floated among the room like the mists of dirt, churned up from nearby construction. At this same moment, for whatever reason, for the first time, a window had opened and with a light gust of comfort, the dirt settled, and I recalled the smile, warm as could be, that greeted me that same sunny July morning. I knew this story was to be far from over.
Africa, difficult and treacherous, is a battlefield. Everyday, my friends and I see its struggle first hand. But, despite the obstacles, that small flickering halo, hidden deep within a jungle of injustice, poverty and disease, still resides bright inside each of us. This struggle has only firmly cemented my belief that this small whispering light of Jesus carried greatly among many, united in chorus, is what shall most truly bring salvation from one heart to another.
Perhaps this, is what Dickens meant.
