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“Everything is Just Spoiled” A firsthand account of SIM missionaries during the Doe/Taylor conflict |
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Christmas of 1989 may have been the worst in Brenda's
life. It all started early in November when she came down
with a set of symptoms she thought was the flu. When they were joined by
chills and shaking, Matt contacted the doctors at ELWA hospital by radio.
Because the upcountry radio link was at headquarters, three miles away from
the hospital, Brenda's symptoms were passed on to a doctor by whoever was
operating the radio, and questions and answers were relayed back the same
third-hand way. Working under those difficult circumstances, one of
the ELWA doctors diagnosed malaria and ordered Quinine. Brenda was also suffering from a serious throat
infection and was taking penicillin for that. Before long she'd started
losing weight and getting weak enough to be "down sick.'' Her strength
continued to wane. At first blush, the weight loss seemed like a welcome side
effect, but as it continued to plummet, it became a cause for increasing
concern. By this time, her strength almost gone, the effort
involved in standing up was enough to push her to the brink of unconsciousness.
One night Ben, the baby, woke in the middle of the night and Brenda got up to
comfort him. In his room, she collapsed on the floor, and crawled back to her
bed with Ben in her arms. "Something is seriously wrong,'' she thought. Her
strength completely gone now, she found herself unable even to get out of
bed. By the end of November she'd been down in bed for
about a week and continued to weaken. When they learned that Dr. Mark Munson
was at the hospital in Zorzor, Matt packed an overnight bag for Ben and
Rebecca, laid Brenda in the back of their land cruiser and headed out for
Zorzor. By the time they arrived, she was almost comatose. Dr. Munson couldn't find her pulse at first. Her blood
pressure was a sinking 60 over 30 and Mark said if she'd waited much longer
there would have been nothing he could do for her. After stabilizing her
condition, he sent them off to ELWA hospital where facilities were better. At ELWA, Bill Ardill diagnosed hepatitis, an infection
and a trace of malaria. After a night at the hospital, they moved into a one
bedroom house a block away from the ELWA beach. They'd left Voinjama prepared
only for an overnight trip to the doctor. They would stay at ELWA for almost
three months. On Christmas eve, Matt made sugar cookies, trying to make Christmas
as normal as possible for Brenda and the kids. He decorated the room around
Brenda's bed, but she was still so sick she wasn't aware of much. Barb
Tschetter loaned them a Christmas tree that was free now that her
second-grade class was in recess for the holiday. Another of Joseph Akume's Christmas turkeys was
waiting in the refrigerator for a Christmas dinner planned with Rod and Lisa
Noteboom. The turkey would fill the oven on Christmas day, but sugar cookies
were on the agenda for Christmas eve. On Friday, the 22nd, Brenda had felt strong enough to
leave the house for the first time since their arrival almost a month
earlier. Matt carried her to the car for the short drive to ICM and supported
her as she walked through the side door a few feet from the street. "It
was such a blessing. It was so good. I remember the entire choir singing at
the end. Diedra Davis is a good friend of ours. We arrived on the same plane.
It was a real blessing just to watch Dedria's face as she sang. It was exciting
to see her praising God, exciting to worship with her on Christmas.'' |