God, Why Don't You Hear Their Prayer?

The village church was a dilapidated, wooden structure that should have been condemned. It leaned dangerously. As people jumped, clapped and shouted to the Lord, I feared the building would collapse. Children joined in the worship with as much frenzy as the adults. Some of the children had bloated bellies from parasites and malnourishment; some were coughing, while many had runny noses.

I continued observing the children as their worship shifted from dancing to dropping to their knees. Tears splashed down their cheeks and onto the floor, forming little puddles in the dirt. Their hands were raised high. Completely focused on Him, they did not seem to notice the flies crawling over their open sores. 

In the village and surrounding area were thousands of orphans. Families who could not afford to feed their own children were forced to take in children of their sisters, daughters, cousins, and co-wives who had died of HIV/AIDS.

The pastor lived in a shack of crude boards with large gaps. His house was virtually the size of my hotel bathroom yet he had just taken in two more children. I asked, "Pastor, with all the people living in your home how could you take in two more?"

"When we lie down on the floor to sleep at night, there is space for two more."

To find clean water people walked two to three miles one way and hauled home as much as they could carry. Many collected contaminated water from streams and puddles close by and were dying from dysentery after consuming it. I learned dysentery was the number three killer in this area, while malaria was number one and measles was number two. HIV/ AIDS was fourth. My lip trembled when I realized their top three fatal diseases were easily treated. How many people could be saved if medicine were available? If there were a clinic, people could receive treatment and be educated about disease prevention. What if a well were dug? How many lives could be redeemed?

I visited a public hospital and was appalled to see the conditions were primitive, filthy and overcrowded. Medicine was scarce to non-existent.  The corrupt medical system left the hospital as only a place to come to die.

The children's wards are so congested that unless a child needs to be connected to an IV he is forced to stay outside during the daytime. Some lie on reed mats while others try to rest on the sidewalk or in the dirt. Family members come to care for them and are responsible for bringing food, soap, a basin and anything else the patient may need. If a patient needs any kind of treatment from an aspirin to an injection to a clean dressing, the family member must bribe the nurse. If they have no money the patient receives no treatment. If they do not receive treatment, they die.

I moved through the wards of the local hospital and cried out to God as I saw people in such weakened conditions they could only manage a nod when I asked if I could pray for them. I have seen children with wide, frightened eyes staring at their mothers as if silently begging them not to die. . .

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God, Why Don't You Hear Their Prayer?