Drive Out Demons Too?

"As you go, preach this message:  

'The kingdom of heaven is near.'  

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. 

Freely you have received, freely give."  

Matthew 10 : 7-8

Heal the sick -- I have calculated that over the course of my time here, I will have seen over 6,000 patients.  Most of them are receiving healing through our efforts here.

Raise the dead -- I have already recounted the story of the lady with the snakebite that was bleeding to death.  She lived  to tell about it, received Christ and delivered a healthy, live, premature baby.  

There's another patient I want to tell you about.  A few nights ago, I was on call and got a phone call from the hospital.  They needed me to come see a patient with a head injury.  When I arrived, I was not really prepared for what I saw.

There was a young man who had just gotten a new motorcycle but had crashed it on the same day it was registered.  And YES he was wearing a helmet.  Even with the helmet, this man was injured badly.  I work in an emergency room, but I've not seen an injury this bad before.  The accident had occurred 45 minutes away and, at that time, it had already been 2 - 3 hours since it happened.  Frankly, given the extent of his injuries, he should have already been dead.

He had extensive lacerations to his scalp.  In fact, it looked like a huge portion of skin was missing.  Then there was a large section of skull missing.   There were bone fragments and slivers all through the remaining scalp.  Then, just under where his skull was supposed to be was his brain.  A large portion of his brain was exposed and had been that way for a few hours on a dirt road traveling to the hospital.  Also, small pieces of the now shattered helmet were throughout the wound.  

Surprisingly, the man was still alive but he was beginning to talk incoherently.  I talked with his uncle (his parents were not there yet) and then talked to Dr. Hewitt, the long-term missionary doctor here.  The uncle wanted to take him to Tamale (2-3 hours away on another bumpy, dirt road) in hopes of seeing a neurosurgeon.  He said, "His parents are well-to-do.  They can afford whatever he needs."  We then learned that the neurosurgeon in Tamale was on leave to Germany for several months.  The next nearest town with a neurosurgeon was possibly 10-15 hours away BUT, even if he could get there (alive), the Ghanaian doctors were on strike because the government had not paid them in several months.  

Given all this, we told the uncle that his "best" chance would be just to stay here and let us take care of it, but that chance was very (VERY) slim of survival through the night.  His uncle said, "We will just have to pray."  We felt  that he would likely die before morning, so we made the decision to just close the skin back the best we could since it seemed inhumane to leave his brain exposed and just wait for him to die.

Over the next 1 - 1.5 hours, I cleaned out the wound as best I could, leaving many bone fragments behind for fear of causing more bleeding if they were dislodged.  Using only local anesthesia in a dimly lit room (one fluorescent bulb on the wall), we went to work suturing.  The skin on the scalp came back together well and really looked pretty good if you didn't know what lurked below.  His left eye was swollen shut and we could not even tell how much his eye was injured.  Frankly, I really didn't want to know at this point.  He already had too many strikes against him.

We finished sewing, bandaged him up, gave some hefty doses of antibiotics and a tetanus shot and tucked him into bed on the ward assuming he would not live through the night.

The following morning, I entered the ward to find his bed empty.  My assumptions had been correct and he did not live.  Or did he?  I look up and the man is walking across the room coming back from the bathroom.  He then proceeded to tell me he felt fine (in very good english I might add).  

Just prior to discharge from hospital

Today is about 11 days later and he is continuing to recover.  I removed the stitches today.  He saw an eye doctor last week and is getting treatment for an eye infection.  He will see a neurosurgeon later this week.  He is no longer in the hospital.  He never actually died, so he wasn't actually raised from the dead.  But he was "as good as dead" as was the lady with the snakebite.  I see both of their healing as miraculous.  

Cleanse those who have leprosy -- yes, this man has leprosy.  I never thought I would ever see a person with this.  He was a patient in our clinic last week.  ( I also never thought I would see a patient with tetanus or "lockjaw" either, but I did here.  He lived to tell about it too!"












Drive out demons -- haven't done this and I really hope God will leave me out of this one!




 I thank God that He has the ability to do all these things and that He is allowing me to be here to see Him work and move among the sick here.  It is a humbling and awesome experience.  LORD, please allow YOUR glory and none other to shine clearly.  Use these experiences to draw the sick and dying unto you.  Continue to use us and all the other BMC staff to bring healing and comfort to those who suffer.  In Jesus' name, heal them and open the hearts of the lost to You.

Following . . . .