Nepal Miracle

Pasted below is an email written by Janelle Breznik, a member of the DIRT team to Nepal last February.  Immediately afterwards is a blog entry from Carl Bottorf of Arise Medical, one of our supported missionaries and the missionary that we went to work with.  It really is amazing to see how the Lord worked.

 

On our trip to Nepal in February 2008, several of us went to a brick camp to help with a medical clinic. It was overwhelming to see the lack of care these people endured making bricks with bare hands day in and day out. We saw hundreds that day. They came with wounds, respiratory problems and so many with back and neck pain from carrying the bricks. Near the end of the day a father walked up carrying a young girl on his back. She was extremely thin and though silent, her face spoke volumes about her incredible pain. It took some work to figure out what and where her pain was but after examination, we felt it was in her right hip and quite serious. Concerned it may be a severe case of bone TB, Carl, convinced the father to allow us to take her to a hospital for x-rays and tests. X-rays later proved what Carl suspected - TB had eaten away the top of her right femur and was no doubt throughout her body. Not a good prognosis. Before he dropped the team off to continue on to the hospital with Bibi, he offered for a couple of the women to come and care for her that night at the hospital. He said he’d be back to pick us up. 

This was the last night for our team in Nepal and there was a sense that we just wanted to stay together as a team. But, the Lord kept tugging at my heart. I went to ask my team leader about it. After some discussion, I told him that before we had left for Nepal, I felt the Lord speaking to my heart that He wanted to do a miracle. (I had kept that to myself till that moment). 

Funny thing, my team leader told me the same thing! We both agreed I should 
go and minister to this young lady. What a blessing to go! I was able to wash her hair and get the mats and tangles out. She smiled as she smelled the fresh scent of the shampoo. I gave her a bath the best I could with her legs already in traction. I felt so humbled to be there. As I washed her, the verse from 2 Corinthians flowed through my mind…”We are to God the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” Before leaving I was able to lay hands on her and pray she would be one of those being saved. I prayed for healing and for her to know God’s tremendous love. I left that hospital not sure if God had done His miracle, but I knew that I was forever changed by my time with Bibi and God’s presence in that room. 

Carl writes in his blog: 
We are still keeping up with the happenings at the Open Hands Children’s Home. I must confess that I simply felt compassion for this 50 pound fifteen year old crippled girl when I met her and really expected her to die. No doubt that the Lord had Bibi firmly in the palm of his hand and was simply using us as his tool. Bibi did not die in the hospital, which was a dirty and nasty place, so when Gina took her home, placed her in a bed in the dining room with her feet tied to the burgular bars of the window I felt that she would never recover and still at great risk of dying. William and Getenet carried her to the bathroom, Gina made her sit in a chair out in the sunshine, and my job was to threaten her and motivate her to eat enough food. 

A few days short of our departure from Open Hands, Bibi had accepted the Lord. She was now attending school for the first time, nearly doubled her weight and could hobble with crutches. Now, we have been told that follow-up x-rays indicate that her femur (legbone) and hip bones have re-generated and grown back; she is now not walking but can pretty much run totally without any assistive devices. Eva and Isaac are caring for her and report that she may even be going to her village to visit her family over the next school break. Janelle wrote the entry below to try to describe her thoughts about the first days in Bibi’s care. I take a good many photos while doing medical camps and have gone through all of my photos from that day at the brick factory looking for a photo of Bibi, as I remember the agony of her pain in her face. The Lord takes care of so many mysterious things sometimes. There are no “before” photos know to me of Bibi and for some reason, that is the way God wanted it. Janelle did have this picture of our initial contact that Saturday afternoon. I can still most vividly recall the agony on her face each time the leg moved. It was terrible. Now, it is but a memory with a strong lesson demonstrating the power of the Lord in even the most desperate of conditions.