First Week in Clinic

I am currently studying Leviticus during my devotional times. From a book so full of rules and regulations that formed the basis of the Old Testament law and sacrificial system, a book that we tend to skip over becuase we have been freed from the law by Christ's ultimate sacrifice, God managed to speak to me.

In Leviticus 13, we learn that one of the jobs of the priests was to examine and evaluate various illnesses and to determine whether they were "clean" or "unclean." Those "unclean" were essentially isolated, while those "clean" were allowed to reenter society. While there were clearly spiritual implications of this (first and foremost), I cannot help but think that "public health" issues were also somewhat at play. Part of being a priest was being a health practicioner. Spiritual health was linked to physical health.

One needs to look no further than to our Great High Priest, Christ, to see this link as well, given the many physical healings that are recorded in the Gospels.

In the two days that I have been able to work in the clinic here, thus far, I have already seen this connection. People will come with physical needs and spiritual needs arise. One lady with pelvic pain shared that she was scared to be at home with her husband when he drinks and becomes abusive. Another teared up from anxiety about her husband whom she feared had TB (and whose brother had recently died with TB). We were able to pray with these patients, invite them to church, and at times offer a pastoral home visit.

While the ease in which spiritual needs arise excites me, the difficulty meeting the physical needs of the patients with modern health care is frustrating. For the lady with the pelvic pain, I had to debate with myself whether to order a pelvic ultrasound because she would have difficulty paying for this ~$10 test (that would undoubetly cost several hunderd dollars in the States). A young lady with several months of severe jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, and pancytopenia could not get the specialty care that she needed to help with diagnosis and treatment. Another lady could not easily get labs because she had traveled 4 hours to get to this clinic and getting labs required her going to another location and bringing back the test results.

Thankfully, I do have more "modern medicine" to offer than isolating patients with illness as they did in Leviticus. However, I am realizing more and more that I need God to heal these patients, both physically and spiritually. In reality, this is a lesson no more true here than in the United States, a lesson I hope to take back with me...