KDurant7 blog adventures

Tarija, Bolivia 1977

On a faith trip to Tarija, Bolivia where I stayed for a month, I met a lady that wanted me to sing kids songs and encourage the children in the hospital. She led me down to the rooms of the children in the main hospital and I thought it would be a normal visit to pray, sing, and do a devotional. But nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see and experience! I went room by room visiting children between the ages of 5 to 10 that had bandages over most of their bodies, some with the open scar tissue drying, and the sight of them in pain made my heart melt into a deep sadness. How could I cheer them up after getting burned so badly when I was getting overwhelmed by experiencing their visible pain? Their skin and their eyes communicated past screams of agony. And their daily treatments with new bandages caused them to relive that initial pain!  I questioned in my mind, where were the parents when their child had such an accident, in the kitchen or lost somewhere, and how could such pain and trauma have happened to such innocent ones by some careless accident?! When you or I want to encourage and share Jesus with others, if you have real compassion, it will change you and shake you to the core. You will thank God for how blessed you are and you will hurt deeply for weak suffering souls that you can only console in a limited way. Children, in particular, need many people in their lives to console them! A song, encouraging words, and a prayer does help, it brings Jesus in the room, and the awareness that He does care, see, heal, and alleviate our hurt bodies. When you share the intense and extreme pain of others it will push you towards God’s consoling Holy Spirit.  It will convict you that we must ‘do something’ uplifting to those in need. I returned 4 or 5 times to visit each of the kids and I saw some light of encouragement come into their eyes. I got to see a few of them smile and that made my day!