Routine, but not normal

We've been here for over three months now, and we have our routines.  For me, I usually go to the Hope Center once week to visit recovering patients.  On the way there in the van we are usually very chatty.  It's always a great group of people, and there are always new people to meet.

On the way back to the ship, it's quiet in the van.  We're all rather subdued.  For me, it's just a bit overwhelming.  We've just seen the patients, and we're all just looking out the windows at the streets of Douala.  We see cattle grazing out of dumpsters, crazy traffic, poverty.

I was also at a dress ceremony this week for the women who have had surgery for childbirth injuries. They receive a  beautiful new dress to represent a new start in a healed life.  I heard testimonies from women praising God for their healing.  These women have suffered, some  for eight, ten or fifteen years.  They have suffered from a condition that is non existent in our country, because everyone in our country has access to safe surgery.
It's not fair or just, is it?

My latest favorite author, N T Wright says, " Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleness of the present world... That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open to us."
We are called to bring God's kingdom to this world.
And that brings joy.

Debbie