MEMORIAL CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL (MCH) – BANGLADESH

I met one young girl named Moberga (pictured above), who was badly burned, and who was taken to a local government hospital. Although the doctors did the best they could, they lacked the medical supplies needed to save Moberga’s leg and to save her life due to infection. One of the nurses caring for her decided her only chance was to send her to Memorial Christian Hospital (MCH).

I have never seen a more beautiful smile from a patient who was hours away from dying. It broke my heart to see our Samaritan’s Purse nurses working hour after hour to save her life. I watched them cry as they did what they could, and then crying out to the one and only true Physician who could indeed save her. Moberga is alive and doing better every day. To God belongs the glory.

While in Kutupolong camp, I watched a baby being born. The baby was delivered in a filthy, messy, crowded shack. There were no trained medical staff to help, no sanitary equipment, no one, really, who seemed to care. And it hit me. Some 2000 years ago, the Saviour of Mankind was born – in a situation almost exactly the same. Yet, a heavenly host looked down, appearing with the angel, praising God saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favour rests.” (Luke 2:13, 14). God sent us His Peace and upon us His favour rests.

Our medical organisations inside the camps call us daily, pleading for bed space for patients who might die in the next 24 hours. Measles has already broken out-cholera is not far behind, malnutrition is off the chart at 7.5%. Surgical staff are working 80 hour weeks – exhausted as they are, they are more burdened by their sense of calling – to love those they care for with the love of Christ.

One member of our team in Bangladesh, nurse Sharon Bailey, said, “Our patients come in traumatised, having fled the violence in Myanmar, some with gunshot wounds, and others with elephant injuries from the jungle, or with traffic injuries. Some of the Rohingya are just not used to roads, cars and lorries.”

Among her patients was a 5 – year-old girl we’ll call Betty who had been shot in the arm. Her family was on a boat fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh when they came under fire. Betty was hugging her father when they were hit. The bullet cut through her arm and hit him in the head – killing her father as he tried desperately to protect her. Betty’s mother now must raise four children alone in a refugee camp.

Please pray for us – we are seeking to love a people so “unloved” by everyone else. Yet, to God, they are indeed precious!