Shanksteps of Faith #37

Shanksteps of Faith
6-8-06
There is often more to the story than you expect.
Such is the case with Matakon (his name in Mafa means
sickness). He is a 15 year old boy who was brought in
to the hospital by his parents 3 days ago with
abdominal pain. He was found to have a partial bowel
obstruction and placed on IV antibiotics and told not
to take any food or drink by mouth. He was doing okay
until yesterday when he started having increasing
episodic pain. An X-ray showed many air-fluid levels
indicating that he now had a full bowel obstruction
and needed surgery to correct it. Straight forward?
NO! The nurses and Greg have spent the past 2 days
trying to convince the father that the child needed
surgery. He has completely refused. He initially
told the staff that he would go home and discuss this
with family, and perform some traditional sacrifices.
Here is the real story.
Someone in Matakon’s family did something very bad in
the past. The spirits punished severly and first took
the life of his mother several years ago (with bloated
abdomen as well). His mother’s eldest brother was
next, followed by her other brother. All died of the
same “illness” that plagues Matakon. The village
Chiefs: the Blama, the Lamido, and other elders of the
village told the family that they needed to do
something (sacrifice) for full pardon from the
spirits. The were also told that if anyone else
becomes ill within 6 months to 1 year that their
action wasn’t sufficient enough and another death
would be the punishment. Thus, the intestinal
obstruction of our patient Matakon. To this family,
this is NOT an illness needing a doctor and surgery.
This is retribution by the spirits for something done
in the past. No wonder they don’t understand our plea
for surgery to save his live. No wonder they don’t
want to hear about the pathophysiology of bowel
obstruction. No wonder they don’t want to pay for
medications. This is a VERY real spiritual battle for
the life of this child. Several of the nurses have
seen this type of thing before and when the surgeon
did a laparotomy to release the bowel obstruction,
they found nothing wrong. Don’t for one minute think
that the Devil can’t imitate (or create) a bowel
obstruction. Don’t for one minute think that there
isn’t a perpetual battle between good and evil going
on. This is the Great Controversy. There is a battle,
not only for the life of this child, but more
importantly for his soul.
So, what do we do as medical professionals??? We cry
and we PRAY. We Pray as never before. We pray for
miraculous healings. We pray for the soul and life of
this child. We pray for the understanding of the
family. We pray for God to remove the evil that
plagues this family. We are unable to do anything
medically, but spritually we have all the army of
heaven for support.
I finish this story several days later and wish with
all my heart that I could tell you about a miracle,
but the truth is, I don’t really know what happened.
As I wrote the first part of the story, our chaplain
and several nurses were talking with the boy, teaching
him about the love of God. We were also trying to
convince him that even though he was unable to choose
his own medical care, that he could make the choice to
follow a God who loves him enough to send His Son to
die so that this child could spend eternity in heaven.
His family took him home and I suspect that he died.
But… you never know what the power of the word of God
can do to change someone’s life.
Please pray that we will God can use us to win these
spiritual battles. This stuff is VERY real.
In battle for HIM, The Shanks