Unreal.

   Before yesterday I had just been floating by on my African Adventure, enjoying every minute of what I was seeing and doing.  Not that yesterday was any different, but yesterday the brokenness of this place became even more real as the stories of the people we were with were not mere strangers but friends.
   We sat inside and waited for our first patient to come. Mari and I got to play "doctor" yesterday, but except real life. We were doing check-ups on malnourished children there were two that were our patients.  The first one was about 3 years old and we had to diagnose her with a staph infection. If you dont know anything about staph it is a very VERY dangerous disease and is hard to cure and can kill you even in the United States.  When I had been incorrectly diagnosed with staph previously and told them about the size of my sores I was told "leave work and come to the doctor right now" in a very urgent voice. But here in Burkina this is a normal senario and all we could treat it with was some anti-bacterial ointment as we are not doctors.
   The next patient was the cousin of our friend here in Burkina. She is severely malnourished..at 2 years of age she weighs 8.55kg, which Im not sure of the conversion but its very small for a two year old. She also had a severe fever of ~105 and we had to send her to the hospital. They sent her home with about 5 medications and a shot and we are unfortunately fearing we will have to test her for AIDS. This is someone who is very close to our friend, at the age of 18 she is caring for her as a mother.
  Today we saw one thing we NEVER thought was "real". Well, we knew it was real, but we had never witnessed it so it was more about stories and pictures than reality.  As we were sitting in church we saw a lady walk out and fall over, seizing and vomiting. The first thought in my mind was heat shock? No my friends, this was a demon. A real demon trying to go against all that God is in his place of worship. Luckily many were there to pray for her.  It was a very interesting event as we didnt even know what to do or how to handle it.
   But amidst all of this brokenness and different things we are seeing it brings me even closer to my creator. That he would love those children so much that he would bring them to us and we can try to find them rest. That we can smile at them and show them that we care even when they are so sick they barely even feel like moving.  That he would love that woman enough that only HE can set her free of what is inside of her. Just as He can set YOU free of all that is inside of you and holding you back from him! He loves so blindly and unconditionally.