January 22, 2003

Dear Friends and Family,
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away leaving him half dead." Luke: 10:30 This is the initial portion of the parable of the Good Samaritan which Jesus used in explaining who was our neighbor.
Although the times and places are different the half-dead person by the roadside is not uncommon here in SW Uganda. Driving down a dusty rutted road we occasionally come across a person lying by the roadside. The culprit is not robbers but cerebral malaria. The patients are semi-comatose and closer to dead than half-dead. A rolled mattress is nearby and several family members are in attendance. The family sits and waits for someone to pass by to transport the unfortunate relative to the nearest medical facility several hours distant. We are amazed by their faith as there is no public transport on these roads and vehicular traffic is rare. We have encountered numerous such patients recently as this is the end of the rainy season and malaria is rampant. Strangely, although we are traveling in a well marked ambulance we are rarely motioned to stop. The family just sits in quiet desperation, hopeful, but ready to accept the inevitable. We stop; exchange the litany of greetings that is expected in this culture, and get down to business. The story is similar: a healthy individual until recently, now afflicted by a high fever, unable to ambulate or speak. After ascertaining that the condition is due to malaria, we start an IV and infuse glucose and give a loading dose of Quinine. Typically our roadside ministrations attract a large crowd of onlookers. We load the patient onto a stretcher and thence into our vehicle and transport them to the nearest facility where the infusion can be monitored. As the family is typically penniless we leave the medicine necessary for the course of the illness, pay for the nursing care, the family and patient's food and for their transport home. The word for thank you "Webare Munonga" is usually not exchanged in this culture, so after we pray with the patient and family we depart. Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise as a 15 year old boy approached me as I sat at a small clinic. He thanked me for saving his life. I must have looked a bit quixotic as he went on to explain that a week earlier he was one of the patients at the roadside in a coma, and now he was returning to school in a few days!
We continue to struggle with "who is ones' neighbor.'. We pray for discernment when we seem to be presented with such a myriad of needs. Is the neighbor the person lying by the road, the woman holding out the malnourished weightless child, your spouse whose private company you so desire, or personal quiet time and recreation? We feebly open our heart and pray for God's leading.
God bless,
Scott and Carol