The list of things that has frustrated us since arriving again here at International Hospital just keeps growing. As I sit here in Tim's hospital room writing his abx are more than an hour late. When I asked about them she said the pharmacy is all out. Umm... so we drive out and get our own?! We were here more than 4 hours before his vitals were checked. This is a patient with a working diagnosis of septicemia!! The nurse gave meds IV push instead of piggyback. The doctor told us around 5pm when I pushed him as to why there have been no cultures done that he couldn't order them anymore tonight because the tech would be mad and not do them correctly- what?! When I asked about


11pm I can't get on the internet right now and that is probably a good thing right now anyway.  Angie went to the guest house to try to get some sleep. I stayed here at the hospital with Tim because we have only one treatment thing going on and they are getting it wrong. They seem completely unable to give these meds. The only thing they are doing for Tim here is the abx regimen and they are being given late (3 hours?! When I've asked for them 3 times already?!) or wrong. 1 gm amipclox IV push over 20 seconds is nothing like IV piggyback over 30 minutes ladies!  Thrombophlebitis 6 hours later- anyone suprised?!
The night physician came in to meet and we asked about RFT and electrolytes. (both drawn at 2pm) no electrolytes yet (lets face it they aren't coming) and the high BUN with a creat of .8 says to me we need to stop ignoring the hypotension. However, when questioned the dr didn't know the normal values and didn't want to do anything about them anyway. Thats fine. Thats why God gives us two kidneys.

When the surgon walked in early evening I asked him what he thought of the white count, and other CBC results and he in essence said the lab was usually wrong so he wasn't going to do anything about them. Ummmm...what?! I pushed him to do a needle aspiration of the joint (s) for culture but he pretty much said it wouldn't change our plan of care. It wouldn't?! How about a repeat ultrasound to see how much fluid is on the elbow or an initial one of the knee to assess the pain. Not necessary. Really?!

Father God- this all seems so surreal. What am I supposed to be thinking? Feeling? Praying? We are headed to Kenya in the morning. I should go? I want to just be still in your presence tonight. Help me quiet my thoughts. What do you need to say to me? My God will meet all of your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. I pray for Tim tonight. I'd be a nut job by now. Draw him close to yourself. Remind him of your presence. We all need you to be our strength.

Currently sitting at International Hospital- Tim was admitted yesterday mid-day. Have been here less than 24 hours and the medical care is ridiculous and atrocious. (Is that redundant?) If I knew where to get the meds that he needs here in Kampala we would just leave because he was getting, if not better, than at least less life threatening care, before we got here. Josh and Mandy are arranging many of the details

So, how am I feeling? I don't even know. Sleep debt is becoming a real problem. I'm functioning with half my brain I think and this isn't good because we (I) need to question EVERYTHING the doctors say. Like my late night conversation with the night shift doc. He had the results of the RFTs and didn't know how to interperet the results. I haven't had to do that in months and so I asked him what were normal values and what Tim's indicated. The long and short of his answer was he didn't know the normal ranges and Tim didn't have anything to worry about. So, I've refreshed myself on the ranges and indications and I'm ready for you next time buddy....

So much for a restful week....

I think that Tim decided that he rather likes all of the attention he gets when he is sick so he added another septic joint tonight. Sharp shooting pain, can't walk, fevers up, BP down. We are all learning the drill. Phone calls to doctors, finding pharmacies that have the right supplies. More IV fluids, intravenous meds every 6 hours and we are back on our way to Kampala as soon as the sun is up. 5 hours of driving to get back to the international hospital. Last week the whole team was here to support, pitch in and make it “easy”. This time the team is all either in Jinga or Kampala. Please pray for Angie. And for Tim's mental well being. He doesn't take well to being sick. And the new team mates moving here next week. It will be hard to come into this confusion. Tim and Angie want to be getting ready for them but can't. And Josh and Mandy have family here and we want them to be able to enjoy their time together. Medications due in two hours. I should be trying to sleep...

Ummm.... so I want to be honest in this post but occasionally have a hard time being vulnerable.  O.K, starting right off not being honest. I never like being vulnerable. Or admitting weakness. But I'm pretty weak right now. I felt pretty overwhelmed when we returned from Kampala Friday evening and walked into a house that looked like a tornado hit it. Almost literally. A tree down in our yard that took a couple sections of fence and demolished the garden. We'd left in a hurry so there was rotten fruit on the table and had been days with off and on power so bad food in the fridge. My room had been ransacked (by me, looking for medical supplies and trying to pack) and my bed buried too deeply sleep on. Rachel (a wonderful teammate) had us over for dinner but while walking home in the dark we found our kitten outside the gate too injured to move. We made her as comfortable as we could but I was up again a portion of the night with her. Early Saturday we put her down. That was really hard for me to do. I'd grown a little attached.

It is amazing to me how all those little things added up and I felt so overwhelmed. There is also real spiritual fatigue that I've never experienced before. I feel like I've been calling out to God since Monday night and waiting and listening for His reply and comfort and encouragement and just not feeling it. I would ask Him what I was supposed to be doing and about all of these decisions and then not hear anything. So I would just rely on what I know and "go with my gut" but then be hit with the guilt that I'm relying on myself.  In church yesterday I realized I was just there, not engaged. Going through the motions but worse than that I was OK with it. I didn't want to engage. On top of all of that I'm still not really sleeping at night (as evidenced by the fact that I'm processing at 4 in the morning).  So rarely has this been a problem for me I don't really know how to cope.  Anyway, enough being vulnerable.

My family will be online to skype in a few minutes and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to plant the garden today and try not to think too much. 

Time to update again. Thank you all for faithfully praying us through all of the last 4 days. I just wrote four and I can't believe that is all that it has been. We are back in Soroti tonight and glad to be here. At the end of my last post I think we were waiting to get through the night and off to the international hospital in the morning. We met with a good doctor shortly after 8am who took us very seriously and immediately said it sounded just like septic arthritis. He gave us a referral to an orthopedic surgeon who could see us at 10am. So we killed some time and were sitting outside his office waiting by 9:50.  Unfortunately this is still Africa, so we finally got in to see him just before 11. He heard the whole story and sent us to radiology for ultrasound to see where exactly the fluid was. We waited another hour but then had a great ultrasound tech who immediately identified the fluid as within the joint with debris and clear infectious process.   So with test results in hand we headed back to the surgeon. He said he was willing to operate but as Tim is doing tolerably well he could try a two week course of antibiotics and reassess.
So we crashed back at the guest house to rest and pack up. Then this morning (after sleeping in a little) we headed back to Soroti. Tim isn't feeling as well as I would like him to be but he is doing O.K. It has been a crazy couple of days and it is really time to call it a night. I'm looking forward to not being awake at 2:30am.  Thank you all again.

A very frustrating day. The good things of the day were that Tim was feeling ok this morning and we (Tim's wife Angie, Beckie to drive and I) left Soroti at 6am.  Travel went very smoothly, putting us in Kampal in a fast 5 hours. We were able to get right in and be seen. But that is about where the positives seemed to end. The British doc didn't take us seriously at all. He talked of bursitis or gout. I told him again and again of the past few days and he responded Tim is a young guy so his low blood pressures are normal, fever is no big deal and pain is to be expected. He even went so far as to say I shouldn't have given the big antibiotics. He tried twice to do a needle aspiration and got nothing. Then sent us to ultrasound where they could see a big pocket of fluid but not in the joint, above it. (I would have sworn that the fluid drawn off in Soroti was from within the joint not above it but I have no proof).  He did culture the fluids- positive for pus but no organisms seen. So he sent us home (to the guest house) and said we could come back at 2pm the next day to make sure the fluid pocket hadn't reformed.  When pressed about abx he said Tim could stay on the Levaquin but all he needed was PO. So, tired and discouraged but trying to be happy that at least Tim wasn't so sick we headed out to find something to eat.  (I want clarify this point- Tim is better as we left but still not great.  Limited range of motion in the elbow, tired and still a little sick.) So we sat down to lunch and Tim laid down on the booth in the restaurant.  I wanted to cry.  Fever was coming back and he was again increasingly weak and tired.  The elbow was hot, swelling again and more painful to move. Now what?!  We headed to the guest house to unpack, rest and re-group. We called the British doc and were again blown completely off. But he did say we could come back to have the fluids drawn off again if we wanted to help with the swelling in the joint. Gee thanks. We worked on a contact at the international hospital that at least seemed to take me seriously on the phone and wants to see him first thing in the morning.
Now, I'm sitting here, 9:45 at night, Tim's pressures are back down below 90, fever back up over 100, pulse tachy.  I don't want to give IV fluids or abx because then he will feel better by morning again and they won't take us seriously. So we are pushing PO and trying to wait. (still with good output I think) And again I won't sleep because I know sepsis goes bad fast and every fiber of my inner IIU nurse is screaming that it is insane to not treat what I know shouldn't be ignored.  Ahhhhh!  There may very well be another 2am post tonight. Please keep praying.

updates

Mandy (one of my amazing team mates) is doing a good job with updates so here is her blog address as we travel. Shaarda News Hopefully she can keep you posted.
I keep going back and forth between trusting God and just wanting to ask Him why is he allowing this? I look at Tim and he looks like he's doing alright then I look at the vitals and the ER nurse in me wants to start running some ACLS protocols. Anyone know where I can get some dopamine around here?  
As much as I want to I shouldn't be waxing philosophical at 2 am after a long day and going on a couple of long nights so I'm just going to sign off here right now.

Too tired to update on what is going on so just going to repost the updates from other team mates- really long frustrating day with a sick friend. Weird to try to be a nurse to my team leader. Discouraging to try to get good and safe medical care here. Headed to Kampala as soon as there is enough light to drive.

From Josh and Mandy Shaarda 11 hours ago:

For those of you who don't know, Tim has poked by the thorn of a cactus about two months ago and has had a lot of pain since then. Last night it became much worse and Jennifer (our teammate and nurse) said it looked like there was an infection and now it went into the blood stream. Tim was in a lot of pain, he had a fever, and his blood pressure was low. This morning his pain and fever are better only because of pain killers (and everyones prayers I am sure) but he still needs strong antibiotics, IV fluids, and his elbow to be drained. Jennifer is helping Angie figure out what to do. They have talked to doctors in America and Kampala to make sure it is the right diagnosis. Right now they are trying to get the medicine in town. They thought they would have to go to Kampala to drain the elbow but through an expat doctor found a doctor in Soroti who is going to do it this morning.

Wow, how quickly life is through upside down and we are falling to our knees desperate for God's help. How we need Him. Last night as Josh and I prayed I was so thankful we have the Lord with us. Thank you for praying for Tim and Angie. We will try to keep you up to date. Be assured God is here taking care of Tim.

From Josh and Mandy now:

Please keep praying for Tim! Really nothing has happened today working with the clinic here. We saw some signs of improvement but now he is back to what he was again. I really want to see them in Kampala. It looks like they will go first thing in the morning and Jennifer will monitor him tonight. He is getting the meds he needs but he has a fever again and his blood pressure is down again and he is not urinating. He has had IV too. It is so hard to know what to do. We are praying!!!

Cancel that consult...

I had finally asked for some help about this sore on my foot...hence the last blog post.  Sunday, late evening, our team was fasting and praying for Karamoja and Beckie felt led to pray for my foot.  By the time we were done praying the pain was gone. By the next morning the redness, swelling and drainage was gone and mid-day it was mostly health pink scar tissue. Now it is just a little scab on the top of my foot.  In my western mind I was quick to say, oh the abx finally kicked it, or something but I have to just shake my head. Cellulitis from nasty and hot to gone in 7 hours because of abx that haven't worked for the past 5 days? This was an amazing gift from God. Thank you Lord for your healing!  He is amazing and I know that He did this miracle to remind me of His power and ability.
And even as I write this it is 1am and I'm wide awake and worried. I have a really sick team mate but no IV fluids, no IV abx, no hospital within hours and I don't know what to do. I hate this feeling. I follow doctors orders well but I don't like writing them myself. But decisions had to be made.  I feel so helpless and anxious. BUT WAIT, didn't God just remind me He is amazing?! It was like He was just waiting for me to ask Him for his help about this foot. So here I am, unable to sleep, sitting at my desk worrying.... ummmm, doesn't line up.  Lord, we are asking for another miracle tonight. Please show your power! I know that you are the great healer and we need you to do this thing because there is nothing I can do to help. I place this in your hands. Amen

Need a quick consult...

O.K.- I need to ask the advice of you medical people that read my blog. Two weeks ago I developed some blisters from walking. Slowly they have become kind of nasty infected sores. I started myself on erythromycin (250 mg q6 hrs) a week ago as they were red, hot and draining. So... five days later the one on the top of my foot is an open, continually draining ulcer with cellulitis from my toes to the base of my ankle. I'm asking for advice now because the joint is so stiff I can hardly walk and the pain is really starting to get to me. The other two sores are looking much better, still can't wear any straps but the drainage has stopped and the swelling is nearly gone. I could post pictures but just reading the description seems gross enough. I'm open to any suggestions as the erythromycin doesn't seem to be cutting it....
(Just for fun the differential diagnosis seems to include amebic skin ulcers, cutaneous anthrax, diphtheria, buruli ulcer, myiasis, and leishmaniasis. But I managed to rule all of these out because the centers are not black, I don't have maggots in the wounds, don't have a fever anymore, they are strictly on my feet, I only really have one that is bad and it isn't spreading to new parts of the body which leaves me with only your standard, run of the mill, tropical ulcer. )

Football (soccer)

I went to the sports grounds today and watched some football this afternoon. It was good football made better as the team I was cheering for won the championship! They are a group of boys (younger than 14), some of whom live on the streets and struggle to care for themselves. Bobby (one of my fellow IT missionaries) has been coaching and the boys played really hard. Bobby does a good job telling a little about it andseeeing the humor in it on their blog. (link below)

 Kolb's Journey- Freedom Boys will win the Goat!

Look at all those bare feet....

More Karamoja Pictures

A few more pictures from the Karamoja trip. My camera battery died but Heidi just shared these with me. Thanks Heidi!!!

This is the truck the day that the roads were so bad coming back from Nabwal. The land rover was heavily loaded, but the last stretch they said we couldn't walk and the guards rode on top because of attacks in the area a few nights ago.

That was of course after we walked quite a bit of the way first. With our armed escort.

A little look at life around the villages

 

Boneless, skinless chicken breast

Had a conversation with Abella tonight. Beckie and I were so excited that we can now purchase chicken here in Soroti that has no feathers, no skin and not even any bones! (Very exciting- I can't even begin to tell you how much easier dinner will now be if I don't have to start from squawking. ) But back to our conversation. They love bones here so Abella was pretty incredulous when I explained that most of the meat I purchased in the states had little or no bone in it and we liked it that way. I went on to tell her that we really never purchase live chickens for dinner in America either. When she asked why I told her because it really wasn't accepted to kill things in our backyards. Where would we put the heads and feet and stuff? She asked why couldn't we just dig latrines and put it in there. I explained that we really didn't need to dig latrines as every house has at least one indoor toilet. Besides, we are not allowed really to just dig giant deep holes without getting permits. She didn't really get that but undeterred, she then asked why we couldn't just burn the waste like here. I explained that it really wasn't acceptable to have fires in your yard to burn trash either. That we just put all of our trash in a bag and every Monday we put the bag outside and early in the morning a truck comes and takes it away. She was quiet for a long time. She is very polite but I could kind of follow where her mind was going so I said- that's right, we are not allowed to kill things, dig holes or light fires in our yards in the states. Her response- life is hard in America isn't it? Yeah, I guess it is a little. So sorry to all of you guys stuck in America today.

Newsletter links

I sent out my newsletter and in it I talked about the travels in Karamoja. Here is the quick jump to those posts.

Karamoja 1
Karamoja 2
Karamoja 3
Karamoja 4
Karamoja 5

Just a bike ride!

Ride for Refuge... less than one month away!  Want to do something in Grand Rapids that will have a big impact here in Soroti?!

I need you to ride!

You can help the displaced, vulnerable and exploited in Uganda – to connect to the hurt and pain personally, and to do something about it by riding your bike and raising awareness and money. You don’t have to be a “bike rider” to ride in the Ride – with the choice to ride from 5 miles to 60 miles, young, old, children, families… practically everyone can ride!  

Please check out http://www.rideforrefuge.org/.

Fun times around the house

I haven't posted about the cats recently but I'm enjoying being back in the house with them.  Today, Mustard carried a live lizard in the house and proceeded to play with it for a while and then it eat it. I allowed this behavior because she seemed to be teaching Trouble how to hunt. ( I also allowed it because I really didn't know how to convince them to all go back outside without actually picking up the maimed lizard).

So here is Mustard with the lizzard. (Sorry mom, that is the rug you gave Beckie.) Trouble wasn't as excited about it as you might think so I don't have any pictures of her with it.

But it entertained the big cat for hours.

Christian Veterinary Mission

In my past posts I made reference to Dr. Val. She is a veterinarian and missionary with Christian Veterinary Mission. She is an amazing woman and has worked in Uganda for about 18 years. Here is her May 2010 newsletter that explains a little about her and a tiny little bit of the work she does in Karamoja. Hi Everybody,

Sometimes on the brink of success, you stumble. Sometimes on the brink of disaster, you soar. I often seem to live on those brinks. Looking back over the last 10 years or so in Karamoja, this year is destined to be remarkable. It holds the most promise that we have ever seen for the people, for their survival, their future peace and stability and their spiritual growth. As an agricultural society, the Karamojong depend on their farm crops for their own food as well as for income. Most people have no other job, only their 1-3 acres of land that they hoe every year, dropping some seeds down sometimes in rows, sometimes randomly, and then pray for God to provide rain in its due time. The last 3 years have been disasters on the farms, with drought, floods or insecurity preventing people from digging their land. When there is insecurity, warriors with sub-machine guns roam through the land looking to steal cattle or other personal properties from unsuspecting villagers. When a woman and her children hike out to their gardens and chance to meet these armed warriors on the way, there is a strong likelihood that they will not all return back home, but will either be killed, hurt or kidnapped on the way. This year, praise God, is looking good, however. Things are much better in our peace villages, which have become sanctuaries or safe havens for many of the people. On the fringes, there is still danger, but little by little we see improvement. The soil of the Peace Villages is fertile, with plenty of rainfall this year (thanks for praying!!!) and everyone is excited to get into the gardens and plant their seeds. Many spiritual seeds are also beginning to sprout in the villages, and we are gearing up our discipleship programme this year. With all this hope in the air, we launched into the year with excitement, ready to see the Lord’s hand at work in us and through us to minister to the people of Karamoja. In order to give an opportunity to involve you all, my friends from US, in the lives of the people here, I started a small seed collection scheme, modeled after an unusual source. There’s this game called Farmville. It’s one of those virtual worlds on the internet networking site, Facebook. I saw many of my friends playing, so I went ahead and joined. You can invite your real-life friends to be your virtual neighbors, then begin buying seed, planting and harvesting virtual crops. Your neighbors can help you on your farm; you succeed much more quickly if you have many neighbors to work together with. (Warning: Facebook can become a real time-waster if you are not careful, or can be only a needed diversion on a stressful day). With this game in mind, I set out to make a real-life “Farmville of Uganda”. I sent out a note to many friends asking to help on our farms here in Uganda and we had a wonderful response, with hundreds of seed packet being sent! We have 40-50 farmers, ready to plant vegetable crops to feed their families. The Uganda Farmville neighbors have now become partners with the Karamojong farmers, to grow crops as a step towards driving away World Hunger, in a practical way. What I love is that the Uganda Farmville is for real, villagers depend on their farm for their very existence. Without these crops, the families could starve. We need to be in prayer, however, since if their crops wither, the people will have no food to eat. (there is no purchasing an “unwither” in real-life Farmville). Without jobs and no savings, they only survive by subsistence farming, which means they eat only what they can grow. Now our Uganda Farmville’s USA neighbors could make a difference in the lives of hundreds of people, as we plant real crops together, and pray for God to bring in the harvest. We were so thankful for everyone being willing to share their resources and efforts for this intervention. In the midst of our excitement, however, things started to go bad. The vehicles all broke down, we fixed them, then they broke down again, and again. While riding the bus, since the vehicles were in various states of disrepair, my phone was stolen, with all of my contact information. Without a vehicle, I also have limited access to communication, as I need to charge my computer through the cigarette lighter receptacle of the vehicle in order to use the internet, so I began to lose track of everything and everyone. During this time,we also saw an increase in political and religious wrangles over the land in the peace villages, to the point that we and our community members and staff were being threatened. Some staff began to experience burn-out from the heavy workload and psychological stress. We then entered into a significant “ebb” in the ebb and flow of our funding, as joint community visits and vehicle repairs overextended our resources. All of these challenges weighed heavily on our backs and our hearts, with no clear end in sight. We were all set up for an Emotional Nose Dive.

At that point, my “Uganda Farmville” stalled in mid-air. Frustrated, I couldn’t get to the villages to deliver the seeds or to plant them with the people. The rains were perfect, the seeds were high quality, the people were waiting, but I couldn’t get there. What do we do when we are frustrated? Here are some options that I worked through, most of which were of limited value!

a. Try to figure out a “Plan B”, then C, D, E…

b. Seek alternative resources or opportunities.

c. Put the pressure on everyone else to solve the problems.

d. Get emotional, upset, cranky or maybe a little teary eyed.

e. Spin my wheels in frustration and resignation.

f. Ask God a lot of questions.

g. Wait silently for God to bring His resolution to the situation.

Steps a.-c. were totally useless. There was really no solution available, only continual disappointments and frustrations. Things went from bad to worse as I found myself hitchhiking along the road several times. My heart then got stuck in steps d. and e. for some time. Wallowing in futility, without any clear place to seek refuge or consolation. I ended up getting sucked into a cycle of impossible dead ends, blinding me to the hope that is within me. Crying out, blaming others, blaming myself, frantically trying to “fix things” so my security and confidence could return, all to no avail. As my confidence was resting solely in my own ability and ingenuity, when I came to the end of “me”, I lost my bearings and couldn’t see any way out. Finally, step f. brought me quickly to g. When serious God-questions only bring silence, only in that very silence can His Voice be discerned. Only in His presence, there is peace, where no outside influence can break in, or destroy. I found it there, in quietness and rest my confidence grew, with His truths as my foundation and His presence as my promise. Please keep praying for us here, as the challenges are many and our hearts can tremble at times, but our God is able, and loves us so much.  Thanks for joining in the harvest, be it vegetables or souls. Jesusis Alive!

Yours in Him,

Dr. Val Shean

What I'm reading...

I'm learing so much about prayer right now and I was reading a book by O. Hallesby while traveling and this passage really struck me as I was overwhelmed by the people and needs around me. I'm sharing it here and I pray that it really speaks to you too.

When Jesus took leave of the eleven apostles at the ascension, He entrusted them a superhuman task. He charged them to go mad make Christ-worshipers of all the nations.

They were to begin in Jerusalem, He had said. That was not far away. The city lay at the foot of Mt. Olivet, and they could see it from where they were standing. In the city were the executioners of Jesus, His innocent blood upon their hands, ready to annihilate every one who dared to mention the name of the Nazarene publicly. And even though the eleven should be fortunate enough to escape these murderers, what did they have to preach? A crucified Messiah, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

As they looked westward from Mt. Olivet beyond the Mediterranean Sea toward Rome, the center of the world, the outlook appeared no brighter. There they would be confronted by the strongest empire which had ever been welded together, the mightest culture and the richest intellectual life which the world has known to this day.

It was almost irony to send out from Galilee eleven common laborers to win this mighty cultural empire for Christ. True, their number was later augmented by an acdemically trained co-laborer, Paul; but he, too, said that he was determined not to know anything or to preach anything, even in the great cultural centers, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

But He who sent them knew what he was doing. He had equipped them for their superhuman task in a twofold manner.

Objectively, He had equipped them with the Messianic gift itself, the Holy Spirit, through whom the powers of the whole supra-mundane world were put at the disposal of the little Christain congregation.

Subjectively, He had equipped them with prayer, the means by which all of these objective, supra-mundane powers are imparted to the individual believer and to the congregation.

We get a vivid impression of how highly He Himself evaluated this equipment when we read a few of his statements about it.

Matt 17:20 “He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matt 18:19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

Paul, who had the opportunity to make use of this throughout a whole lifetime of work and sacrifice says of it, “ Phil 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

He who had sent them knew that this weapon, this piece of equipment, would make them invincible. “Nothing shall be impossible for you” were His words. When at His ascension He took leave of His friends as far as His physical presence was concerned, He extended His almighty arm so far don that we insignificant and sinful people can reach it every time we bend our knees in prayer.

Whenever we touch His almighty arm, some of His omnipotence streams in upon us, into our souls and into our bodies. And not only that, but, through us, it streams out to others.

This power is so rich and so mobile that all we have to do when we pray is to point to the persons or things to which we desire to have this power applied, and He, the Lord of this power, will direct the necessary power to the desired place at once.

This weapon is the more valuable to the friends of Jesus, because it is not possible for the enemies of Jesus to make use of it. True, His enemies can lay hands on the weapon; but the moment they grasp it in earnest they are transformed from enemies to friends of Jesus.

Here, too, we see divine grace and wisdom. How terrible this weapon would become if it could be used by anybody and everybody for purposes of revenge and destruction. Instead He has decreed that only His own friends can establish contact with these inexhaustible sources of power. In fact, the means of contact has been devised so carefully that the connection is automatically cut off, as soon as we try to employ this power in ways contrary to the will and purpose of Jesus. It is only when we pray for something according to the will of God that we have the promise of being heard and answered.

It is our Lord's will that we who have received access to these powers through prayer should go through this world transmitting heavenly power to every corner of a world which needs it sorely. Our love should be, according to our Lord's plans, quiet but steadily flowing streams of blessing, which through our prayers and intercessions should reach our whole environment.