Meet one of my very special patients, this brave girl - Ravette.

Ravette was born bow legged. On top of that, she has sickle cell. She came to Mercy Ships sick and needed a lot of care before she was even eligible for surgery. She has never been able to walk normally, play or run like a kid should. Her surgery went well - her bones cut and realigned, having to wear casts for more than two months. This girl - she faced it all with bravery and more than that, with joy. 

She is the best patient anyone could ask for. When you went to draw blood from her, she willingly gave you her arm – only after she did a little dance. Her smile was still in place. Even when you checked on her and she was clearly in pain or uncomfortable, she would smile. And not just any smile – a brilliant, all-teeth, light up the eyes type of smile. She would flash a thumbs-up. Whenever there was any hint of music, this girl would be dancing. Getting down. Her hysterical giggles could be heard at any moment in the ward. She was such a joy to care for.

Ravette is now staying at the Hope Center, a center that we have set up for the patients who no longer need acute medical care after surgery, but still require dressing changes and follow ups frequently enough that they cannot go home.  When I last saw her, it was precious and heart wrenching at the same time seeing her learning to walk, hesitant to bend her knees and taking baby steps. She had spent her whole life walking one way and now, she is learning all over again.

Just like us - when our eyes are opened and we see we have been walking the wrong way. God gives us the grace to be able to walk uprightly, to start out taking baby steps and learn to bend the knee so we can bow the knee before Him.

  

Just recently, Ravette got one of her casts off! She is on the road to a changed life! Sometimes I sit in the middle of the ward, quiet amidst the chaos of twenty patients and caregivers in one room, and look around at the lives being changed right in front of my eyes. I am privileged to be a part of this, of visibly seeing how God changes the outside of a person and imagining the same transformation on the inside of a person, transformed by the grace and love of Jesus. 

I have learned from Ravette - about joy and how to relearn to walk uprightly. I will never forget her face.