My Name is Greg Seager and I am the director of the Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC), a long-term missionary sending program for healthcare professionals.The following story was a recent update sent to us from CHSC missionaries Joy and Bill Irwin serving at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya. I found it moving and felt it worth sharing.
You can learn more about the Irwin's on the Christian Health Service Corps website at http://www.healthservicecorps.org/
From Joy and Bill Irwin Christian Health Service Corps Missionaries at Tenwek Hospital in Kenaya
God has set a burden on my heart that I did not anticipate. For many years I have been burdened for fistula patients and those suffering from female circumcision. And I still am. But other women have been coming into the hospital I did not expect. They are the victims of criminal abortionists who promise help but actually maim and kill. I have one girl’s story on our Blog. She has not been alone, in her choice or in her suffering and death.
On a Tuesday night several weeks ago I went to Casualty to help out with a very sick woman who was reported to have had an abortion the week before. I was prepared for hemorrhage, septic shock, bowel perforation, a necrotic uterus—all of these we see regularly here on our Gyn service as complications of abortion. But this was something entirely different: during the abortion attempt, she had gotten an injury of her perineum, and it had necrotized (think flesh eating bacteria, “gangrene”) her entire genital and vaginal region, extending across and encompassing her entire abdominal wall as well. The smell was terrible. Her suffering was terrible. And there was nothing we could do medically or surgically. She was delirious—and so we could not even share our faith with her. Standing there, with our Gyn and Surgical teams, amidst the chaos, the smell, the sounds of imminent death, I looked up and met the eyes of this woman. Brokenness, sorrow, grief. Her story. Our story. Why Jesus came.
This young 25 year old died in the unit the next day. She left behind two young children. I do not know if she was a Christian
What then shall we do? How do we respond to such great sorrow, to such an overwhelming and ugly reality? God has placed it on my heart to gather a group of missionaries and nationals—doctors, pastors, and community health workers—to meet and pray and go out into our community and begin to love and care for vulnerable girls and women before they fall into hands that harm. Please pray with us that God will let this be of Him and not of us—and that He will somehow bring hope, healing and light into places of despair, brokenness, and darkness.
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CHSC operates no health programs directly, Tenwek Hospital is affiliated with World Gospel Mission (WGM) to which CHSC subcontracts needed medical and surgical missionary support staff. If you are interested in visiting Tenwek you should contact Samaritans Purse World Medical Mission or World Gospel Mission.
You can learn more about the Irwin's on the Christian Health Service Corps website at http://www.healthservicecorps.org/
From Joy and Bill Irwin Christian Health Service Corps Missionaries at Tenwek Hospital in Kenaya
God has set a burden on my heart that I did not anticipate. For many years I have been burdened for fistula patients and those suffering from female circumcision. And I still am. But other women have been coming into the hospital I did not expect. They are the victims of criminal abortionists who promise help but actually maim and kill. I have one girl’s story on our Blog. She has not been alone, in her choice or in her suffering and death.
On a Tuesday night several weeks ago I went to Casualty to help out with a very sick woman who was reported to have had an abortion the week before. I was prepared for hemorrhage, septic shock, bowel perforation, a necrotic uterus—all of these we see regularly here on our Gyn service as complications of abortion. But this was something entirely different: during the abortion attempt, she had gotten an injury of her perineum, and it had necrotized (think flesh eating bacteria, “gangrene”) her entire genital and vaginal region, extending across and encompassing her entire abdominal wall as well. The smell was terrible. Her suffering was terrible. And there was nothing we could do medically or surgically. She was delirious—and so we could not even share our faith with her. Standing there, with our Gyn and Surgical teams, amidst the chaos, the smell, the sounds of imminent death, I looked up and met the eyes of this woman. Brokenness, sorrow, grief. Her story. Our story. Why Jesus came.
This young 25 year old died in the unit the next day. She left behind two young children. I do not know if she was a Christian
What then shall we do? How do we respond to such great sorrow, to such an overwhelming and ugly reality? God has placed it on my heart to gather a group of missionaries and nationals—doctors, pastors, and community health workers—to meet and pray and go out into our community and begin to love and care for vulnerable girls and women before they fall into hands that harm. Please pray with us that God will let this be of Him and not of us—and that He will somehow bring hope, healing and light into places of despair, brokenness, and darkness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHSC operates no health programs directly, Tenwek Hospital is affiliated with World Gospel Mission (WGM) to which CHSC subcontracts needed medical and surgical missionary support staff. If you are interested in visiting Tenwek you should contact Samaritans Purse World Medical Mission or World Gospel Mission.
