The Lord is Our Refuge

In our morning devotions (as a multicultural medical staff) we were instructed powerfully through Psalm 11. It challenges us to consider who it is we "seek" in times of distress or unrest or discomfort. Do we seek the old, familiar ways of the world and the remnant of our flesh nature (approved and taught by modern society) or do we seek "refuge" in God alone?
I am also seeing this crucial question arise in our daily work here at Kapsowar Hospital. Multiple times per day we are asked to care for very ill people, usually "poor" by our standards and without previous health care. We are asked to help without the aid of the modern, sophisticated health care we have in the US become accustomed to and have come to "expect." We do not have CT scans, EKG machines, ventilators, microbiology, and countless other diagnostic and therapeutic aids. Even the language barrier makes it difficult to obtain an accurate history. In our American medical care system these are the familiar and comfortable ways we expect in order to care for our ill people. When we find ourselves plunged into the new reality we know a level of deep distress, unrest and discomfort.
Yet we are promised by a God that never breaks promises that "Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you." (Psalm 9:10) In those times of distress when our human knowledge and the world's resources are not able to direct our ways we must ask and act upon the question David asks in Psalm 11:3: "When the foundation are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The answer is, and must be, "In the Lord I take refuge." (Psalm 11:1)
We must stop and pray for Him to guide and direct our diagnoses and treatment; we stand humbled but seek Him, in obedience, who will never fail or forsake. We make do with what we have and offer above all else kindness and compassion to this slice of the world whose need is beyond description. We see and feel tragedies and failures but in the midst of it all we see miracles and a faithful, powerful, righteous God. In these several weeks God is, and will be, at work in our lives - growing and maturing us "in Christ" - and in the lives of the many others whose faces and lives only briefly pass to our eyes, but who are deeply loved by their God.

-David

The handmade incubator is now being used (Jeremy and Christine carried the LED thermometers in their luggage and Mike finished the construction yesterday).