About two decades ago, a young man, I will just give his initials – PSC, joined a premier engineering institute. He came from a non-Christian family, with atheistic beliefs and had habits as would be expected in a man of his age and background and emptiness in his life.
In the Institute a colleague of his witnessed to him about Jesus, brought him to fellowship of believers and he was surprised at the joy and vibrancy in their lives without recourse to the world’s way of ‘pleasures’. He felt God’s call to him, repented and submitted himself to God accepting Jesus as his savior. God blessed him, taught him and he became a very dependable, responsible and effective member of the assembly and was used mightily for ministry.
One late evening he went to the local bus stand to receive another minister of God, and as they were coming back, this minister realized that he had forgotten his bag with his Bible in the bus that he had just got down from. This young man immediately rushed to the bus stand, only to find that the bus had already left for the next station. So he gave the bus a hard chase on his two-wheeler in an attempt to retrieve the bag and the Bible. In the dark, he could not spot, in time, a bullock cart in his way and suffered a headlong collision with it.
He suffered a fractured pelvis and a fractured and dislocated hip with injury to the Sciatic nerve – the main nerve connecting the lower limb to the brain, therefore being rendered unable to move up his ankle. A series of operations and complications followed; his fractured hip area got infected, plates put in to hold the fractures together had to be removed, infected bones had to be removed and at the end he was left with most of his hip joint taken out and a lower limb about six inches shorter. Finally he could walk – rather lurch, only with aid of a stick and shoe raise and every step an exercise in pain. The infection at the site of injury continued to surface off & on and trouble him and the pain would worsen every so often, forcing him to be on constant pills and injections.
Through all this his faith did not waver, his commitment did not diminish and he continued to fulfill the same responsibilities in the Church as before, never complaining about his condition or his pain. Always encouraging others in the Lord and pushing himself to the limits to be of use in the ministry and service of the assembly. The Lord honored his commitment and despite all these limitations, gave him a believing and loving wife – a medical doctor and then gave them a daughter.
But his pain continued and every step became agonizing, so after years of prayers – self and through the Church, he finally thought of going for hip replacement surgery to be able to walk better and with less pain & discomfort. The surgeons were not willing to take his case because of the long history of infection & deficient bone around the hip – both the cause of poor possible outcome. Finally one surgeon in his parent's hometown, about 200 kilometers from his own home and workplace agreed to operate, after explaining the possibilities of a poor outcome or failure. After more prayers over some months it was finally decided to go ahead with the surgery.
He was operated about three months ago. The operation seemingly went well, but in about a fortnight a review showed that the deficient bone at the hip needed supplementation. So he had to undergo another surgery to put in bone graft around the bone deficient area. He was recovering well and was discharged from the hospital. After some time he developed a discharge from his wound and had to be re-admitted with wound infection and had to undergo another surgery to clean up the infection. As that recovered, he gradually started to walk and then started to take weight on his operated leg. As the weight bearing increased, he felt an instability and an x-ray revealed that a restraining ring in the ‘cup’ part of the hip joint that functions to keep the ‘head’ part of the artificial hip joint within the cup had come loose and had moved out; so the ‘head’ was now moving out of the cup producing the instability.
A brace was provided to hold the hip in place and provide stability. He started to walk with the aid of the brace, accepting the limitations with the consolation that now walking though still discomforting, was no more the agonizing experience it earlier was. As he graduated to walking full weight bearing he came back to join his duties, and then before he could re-start his job he again felt problems in the hip. Another x-ray showed that the whole of the ‘cup’ part had now come loose and his whole operation is now a failure and will have to be redone!
This is where he stands now – depressed, in pain – physical and mental; and uncertain about his future.
He wonders about his parents and other relatives who though have stood by him so far but are still unbelievers and still unhappy about his having accepted Jesus. His wife and daughter are unable to be with him, since the daughter is in school and cannot be made to drop classes and his wife is not being sanctioned leave from her job in a mission hospital to go and be with him. The first series of surgeries and repeat surgeries, because of the complications, was a big financial drain on him specially since it had gone way out of the planned budget. He now has to make arrangements for this next series – not only for the finances but also for the required leave from his job and his wife’s job.
Please pray for this brother – PSC, for the Lord to maintain his faith, his courage and commitment and provide the means to have him treated and recover fully. That his parents and other non-Christian members of his family are not used by satan to ridicule him and his faith and that his wife may be given leave to be with him, help and support him in this time of need when he requires her presence with him.
In the Institute a colleague of his witnessed to him about Jesus, brought him to fellowship of believers and he was surprised at the joy and vibrancy in their lives without recourse to the world’s way of ‘pleasures’. He felt God’s call to him, repented and submitted himself to God accepting Jesus as his savior. God blessed him, taught him and he became a very dependable, responsible and effective member of the assembly and was used mightily for ministry.
One late evening he went to the local bus stand to receive another minister of God, and as they were coming back, this minister realized that he had forgotten his bag with his Bible in the bus that he had just got down from. This young man immediately rushed to the bus stand, only to find that the bus had already left for the next station. So he gave the bus a hard chase on his two-wheeler in an attempt to retrieve the bag and the Bible. In the dark, he could not spot, in time, a bullock cart in his way and suffered a headlong collision with it.
He suffered a fractured pelvis and a fractured and dislocated hip with injury to the Sciatic nerve – the main nerve connecting the lower limb to the brain, therefore being rendered unable to move up his ankle. A series of operations and complications followed; his fractured hip area got infected, plates put in to hold the fractures together had to be removed, infected bones had to be removed and at the end he was left with most of his hip joint taken out and a lower limb about six inches shorter. Finally he could walk – rather lurch, only with aid of a stick and shoe raise and every step an exercise in pain. The infection at the site of injury continued to surface off & on and trouble him and the pain would worsen every so often, forcing him to be on constant pills and injections.
Through all this his faith did not waver, his commitment did not diminish and he continued to fulfill the same responsibilities in the Church as before, never complaining about his condition or his pain. Always encouraging others in the Lord and pushing himself to the limits to be of use in the ministry and service of the assembly. The Lord honored his commitment and despite all these limitations, gave him a believing and loving wife – a medical doctor and then gave them a daughter.
But his pain continued and every step became agonizing, so after years of prayers – self and through the Church, he finally thought of going for hip replacement surgery to be able to walk better and with less pain & discomfort. The surgeons were not willing to take his case because of the long history of infection & deficient bone around the hip – both the cause of poor possible outcome. Finally one surgeon in his parent's hometown, about 200 kilometers from his own home and workplace agreed to operate, after explaining the possibilities of a poor outcome or failure. After more prayers over some months it was finally decided to go ahead with the surgery.
He was operated about three months ago. The operation seemingly went well, but in about a fortnight a review showed that the deficient bone at the hip needed supplementation. So he had to undergo another surgery to put in bone graft around the bone deficient area. He was recovering well and was discharged from the hospital. After some time he developed a discharge from his wound and had to be re-admitted with wound infection and had to undergo another surgery to clean up the infection. As that recovered, he gradually started to walk and then started to take weight on his operated leg. As the weight bearing increased, he felt an instability and an x-ray revealed that a restraining ring in the ‘cup’ part of the hip joint that functions to keep the ‘head’ part of the artificial hip joint within the cup had come loose and had moved out; so the ‘head’ was now moving out of the cup producing the instability.
A brace was provided to hold the hip in place and provide stability. He started to walk with the aid of the brace, accepting the limitations with the consolation that now walking though still discomforting, was no more the agonizing experience it earlier was. As he graduated to walking full weight bearing he came back to join his duties, and then before he could re-start his job he again felt problems in the hip. Another x-ray showed that the whole of the ‘cup’ part had now come loose and his whole operation is now a failure and will have to be redone!
This is where he stands now – depressed, in pain – physical and mental; and uncertain about his future.
He wonders about his parents and other relatives who though have stood by him so far but are still unbelievers and still unhappy about his having accepted Jesus. His wife and daughter are unable to be with him, since the daughter is in school and cannot be made to drop classes and his wife is not being sanctioned leave from her job in a mission hospital to go and be with him. The first series of surgeries and repeat surgeries, because of the complications, was a big financial drain on him specially since it had gone way out of the planned budget. He now has to make arrangements for this next series – not only for the finances but also for the required leave from his job and his wife’s job.
Please pray for this brother – PSC, for the Lord to maintain his faith, his courage and commitment and provide the means to have him treated and recover fully. That his parents and other non-Christian members of his family are not used by satan to ridicule him and his faith and that his wife may be given leave to be with him, help and support him in this time of need when he requires her presence with him.
