What Would You Do?

By Daniel Knott*

Last Wednesday, while visiting a man named Amoki, I learned that Cadama, one of his wives, was very sick. As I stepped into the room where she lay, I saw she was nursing a two-month-old baby girl named Mazalo, the youngest of nine children (all under ten years of age.) The baby was listless, unable to get nourishment because of her mother's sickness. The mother's abdomen was swollen, as were her legs and the left side of her face. I wondered if either mother or baby would live through the night.

I asked Amoki what he had done to help his wife. He told me he had used all the money he had to purchase a chicken to sacrifice to the idols. He had called witch doctors who had tried to cure Cadama.

The family tried to feed the baby fermented ground corn from a filthy cup. I went to a village shop and bought a can of evaporated milk. As I walked back, questions flashed through my mind. What would happen to the baby and the other children if their mother died? If I were to take this woman to the local hospital it would be my responsibility to pay the bills; how much would that cost? If I helped this family, would I be expected to help all the other sickly children in the village? If I helped this woman, would I create dependence on foreigners? Yet if I did not help her, what would they think of the gospel I was sharing? I decided that if I did nothing, my inaction would say more than whatever I risked by helping.

I decided to take Cadama to the hospital. For four days, my wife, Joanie, prepared bottles every four hours. At two months, the baby weighed only six pounds! We were able to place the infant in a sort of orphanage, with an older woman from her family caring for the baby girl.

All the work I had planned to do had to be set aside to take care of formalities at the hospital and the orphanage. Compared with the cost of medical care in the United States, prices were not high, but these are expenses we had not budgeted for.

The baby is now getting proper care and has a chance to live, and last night a woman from the church went to the hospital to talk to Cadama. After several hours, Cadama asked Jesus to be her Savior. That makes it all worthwhile.

*Name has been changed.