Snail's Pace

I had the privilege of helping a family today I hadn't met yet before. It was quite an experience, to say the least. They were really kind. Never have I been so amazed at the situations that people live in on a daily basis. The young man (23 years old) went to bed one night feeling fine and woke up the next morning paralyzed from the neck down. Unbelievable. He has a disorder called Transverse Myelitis. For more on this, check out this link: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/transversemyelitis/detail_transversemyelitis.htm
I showed up at the house and realized that the family of four lived in an apartment above a garage. The steps up to the apartment were really old and weak. I thought I might fall through them. I walked in, met the family and we began the task of carrying Larry down the rickety, old stairs. His brother grabbed him under the arms and I got his legs. We went to a very interesting doctor's office where Larry was being treated for a UTI. The office was in the upstairs of the mall which meant we had to take the elevator...that was out of order. This meant carrying Larry up the steps again. Thankfully, the world's largest policeman worked security for the mall and pretty much carried Larry up the stairs by himself! He was huge! The doctor, and I hesitate to call him that, was not very helpful and really didn't do too much to alleviate the issues. It seems that folks in these situations have a hard time getting good, quality help. He is on Medicaid. We then made our way back to their home. Dad has emphysema and was given three months to live two months ago. Mom spends all her time taking care of the two men. Brother does what he can to support the family and helps in many ways. They are supposed to be moving to another house soon...but that was what they were told six months ago. Nothing happens fast, it seems, for folks who don't have the resources. I prayed with the family and asked God to intervene. Sometimes there's just nothing else to pray! I'm hoping to try and help as much as I can. We'll see how it goes. If you haven't caught things so far, let me stress again that this is a mission field in every sense possible. All for now.