“Immaculate” sounds pretty holy, doesn’t it? It’s a name that reminds you of Mary or even a Catholic Church. It even reminds me of a famous football play. But it is the name of a young girl who lives in Kisumu and goes to the orphan day school. She is not a total orphan. Her mom is alive. Immaculate’s mom tries to make a little money with her own business. With this money and the sponsorship money coming from America, they try to survive in the Nyalenda slum. Immaculate’s mom had saved to buy a little french fry maker. When she wasn’t in school, Immaculate would sit on the ground by the street and sell these potatoes to passers-by (until last week).
As Immaculate and her mom were selling their fries, a huge truck raced by and jumped off of the road. He ran over Immaculate and her mother. They weren’t the only ones. Five other people were run over by this careless, speeding driver. Even their french fry maker was destroyed. But the tragedy was greatest for little lmmaculate. She was dragged under the truck through the slum with the muffler burning her skin as she was pulled along.
Josh Farnsworth is my old friend. Actually, he was one of my old students at Puget Sound Christian College. I taught a course in preaching and another one in evangelism to Josh. He was one of those life of the party good guys that you really miss. I hadn’t seen Josh in about a decade when I recently got a call from him. He told me that he was now a nursing student and wanted to go somewhere to help people this summer. I told him about our clinic in Kisumu. It was just what he was looking for. He quickly raised some money and came over to help.
Wow, it was good to see Josh again when I arrived in Kisumu. I couldn’t believe how many people he was helping in the clinic and how much his enthusiastic spirit was lifting up the children there. I was so proud of him. You just like to see your students doing good work.
One afternoon Josh called me. He said that he needed my help. I followed him as he entered a room and introduced me to a young girl named Immaculate. She was lying there in pain. It hurt her to walk so Josh came to her. She was pretty banged up, but what was worse was the burns. Josh started unwrapping the gauze and the bandages. She screamed as he took them off. He just kept telling her nice things. He even got her to laugh and smile at one point. But she was in such bad shape. I’m not used to seeing huge third degree burns. I was a little bit sqeamish to say the least. He put ointment on her, bandaged her, and then taped her back up.
I thought that if she were where I was from that she would be in a burn unit at a hospital. I couldn’t believe that she couldn’t come to the clinic. But I was really impressed. She was helped as well as could happen based on where she lived. If it were not for Josh and the clinic, she wouldn’t have been helped at all. I saw how someone with a little bit of training and a big heart could make a huge difference in the life of someone who was hurting in a really tough spot.
Things are different where I live. The man who ran over her would be sought after and prosecuted instead of going free. Better medical facilities and better qualified health workers would be available. But I don’t think anyone would ever receive better “care”.
Thanks Josh. Get better Immaculate. Our prayers are with you. You are in good hands.
