A Cry for Help

“In my distress I called to the LORD,

and cried to my God for help.

From His temple, he heard my voice;

my cry to him reached his ears.”

Psalm 18:6

Here in Canada it’s beautiful time of year with the changing of seasons, and time to gather and be grateful. A reminder of all we have to be thankful for, and the abundance we are blessed with.

I was recently scrolling through some messages from our partner surgeons working in Burundi and Madagascar, and many go like this:

“The operation was a success! Thank you for your help! ”

“Here is the mother - she is so happy. Thank you!”

So much gratitude! And a humble reminder that we are so privileged to live where healthcare is provided.

A reminder we are “blessed to be a blessing.”

One recent message went like this:

“We had a young boy, Nagui, who come into the Intensive Care Unit after a traumatic incident that left him with compartment syndrome and a chest infection.

We provided the treatment as well as a procedure, and after a long stay in the ICU, he was allowed to go home.

But Nagui had a large wound down his leg from the procedure, and it was too big to heal itself. He needed a skin graft, which meant another trip to the hospital.

But when his mother was told that she would need to find money to pay for another procedure, she was sad, and cried for help because she had no way to provide the necessary money.

Nagui was sponsored by Surgery Helps for his surgery so he could receive the skin graft he needed.
The surgery was successfully completed soon after!”

When I read something like this, I can’t help but think of the verse above, where “God heard” and the cry for help “reached his ears.” Isn’t it beautiful to see the church being the hands and feet of Jesus, meeting the needs of those who are crying out for help in hard places? Even from far away, God is using us, Surgery Helps, to be an answer to people’s prayers.

That’s what we’re here for. Taking action to change lives and meet the needs when others cannot meet them themselves.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we can rejoice together that children like Nagui can be given the chance to move past his trauma and live his best life.