Finding healing from physical and emotional injuries

The story of Su May is one that may touch even the stoniest of hearts. She is from a mountainous area in NW Vietnam, a small village we have not visited, but we now can tell her story. She doesn't speak Vietnamese, but only her ethnic language, being from a branch of the Dao people, one of more than 50 ethnic peoples inhabiting different parts of the country that has subsumed them under the Viet Kinh culture and language. She is one of 12 children, and when she was yet a teen she suffered an injury to her foot, possibly a snake bite, that never healed well. For the past 35 years she had been limited in her mobility, and has seen the infection gradually progress, leading to loss of toes and some persistent ulceration. Potential suitors were reluctant to accept her as a bride, so she was only eventually married at a much later age than her sisters. She works as best she can to help the family economy, working in their agricultural environment to sustain themselves, but they haven't a lot. 

                                  

She somehow became acquainted with a socially conscious group of trekking guides working out of Sapa, who saw with compassion her plight, and where it would end up. That connection brought her case to the attention of a good hearted sister in the Hanoi Branch, Anita Hummel, who has done several projects in the region through her non-profit arm, Sprouts. And Anita of course reached out to her network, which included us. Seeing her foot was not a sight for the faint of heart,

       

and was clearly not something that I cold handle on my own. But we are developing a network of friends here as well, and so I asked my good friend, Dr. D, whether his hospital might have the resources to handle a very long-standing case of probable osteomyelitis for a woman of very limited means. And that led to Dr. G, whom we met, and whom Su May met, this week after working to arrange a suited translator for her here, and arrange transportation, and some level of public health coverage. Of course that isn't yet the end of the story, but it did provide what might be considered the two best quotes of the week, "We have US doctors who come here to do charitable work every week; certainly we can also do charitable work." Spoken by the vice-director of the hospital and formerly an orthopedist, who was consulted when it seemed there might be some complications on the bureaucratic side of things to get her anticipated two to four weeks of care and rehab paid for at some level. (The second notable quotable, was in Vietnamese, spoken by my friend in introducing me to the vice director, "This is Professor Lewis who has left all his money behind him in America." Such a compliment!)

        

Sintting in the orthopedic department and contemplating what was going through the mind of this woman as her foot was examined and her interests considered with compassion by those around us, was an eye-opening experience of what the gospel of Christ really is to us. It is Christ, the pre-emminent figure in human history, the Physician and Master Healer, sitting with us, examining our hearts, our wounds, our scars, even those that have been part of us for decades, and mercifully advocating on our behalf, expressing his willingness to cover all the expense of suffering, as he prescribes the cure that will heal us. It is also our quintessential role as his children, representatives and understudies, to do all we can to connect those around us who are carrying these wounds, see with compassion, facilitate the transport, the translation and connection, so they can sit in the presence of the Master Healer, and be made whole.

The other story that I Would like to tell is that of a warm, wonderful woman who hosted us for dinner this week, just a few days in advance of her baptism and making a covenant to take upon herself the name of Christ and to remember him, just as she remembers her own earthly parents. She lived through some hard times in Vietnam as a young child, but coming from goodly parents was raised with enough advantage to develop a strong moral character, confidence and a regal carriage. But like many people, she was a pretty private person. To see her personal charm, her expressive love, and her countenance now, one hardly guesses the backdrop. Her rearing led her to marry a man of some means, and their life together, even amid some of the trials of the early doi moi (New Life) stage of Vietnamese economic development was not without opportunities to enjoy a few of the benefits of that expansion. The marriage brought into her life two fine sons, whom she clearly loves and guarded dearly. This was even more the case when various things led to a painful divorce at a time when her sons were away studying and pursuing their own development. Living with her mother who was aging, she felt totally abandoned, even if her outward countenance didn't appear bereft. She turned inward and tried to nurse her wounds, largely unsuccessfully, and hoped her sons could also recover and move onward with the altered status with their father. 

Then the glimmer of light from the gospel began to enter her life, and she began to see new hope. She began again to sense love, and have the opportunity to express love. Her heart, once broken and totally contracted inward, was healed and infused with a new energy to bless others. As she spoke of feeling so comfortably at home in her own home, with people she would have never imagined ever sharing a meal with a brief period previously, one might again recognize that a miracle of healing had occurred, and though not removing the wisdom or memory of trauma had turned it into joy. The ashes of sorrow and loss, have become the balm and beginning of a new life.

When she shared more of her story during the baptismal service, a moving talk that was fully 20 minutes or more, it was evident that her witness of the gospel was gained with the blessing of her own courage to allow her youngest son to exercise his agency and choice, as well as with the blessing of her many ancestors whom she revered and had in various dreams and other ways made it clear to her that the path she was on would lead them all to a glorious future. 

Lanterns in the Moonlight

It's harvest time in many areas of the northern hemisphere, and Vietnam is no exception. That is typified in the cities by the appearance of countless colorful booths selling "mooncakes" or "Bánh Trung Thu." This festival is a long-standing tradition on the lunar calendar occuring on the 15th of the 8th lunar month, coinciding with the full moon, perhaps known as the "Harvest Moon" in the west. The mooncakes are somethiing of an oriental fruitcake-- some people love them, some abhor them, and most everyone gives them-- they are the ubiquitous gift currency of the times. Thus far, with the actual date of the holiday still over a week away, we've been the recipients of double digit quantities, and likewise given or shared a similar amount. As might be presumed by the marketing efforts involved in purveying these seasonal delights, they can be fairly expensive. A few households have moved to "home production" for these, and one of our friends from K Hospital graciously shared some of their efforts.

     

              Home-made Banh Trung Thu look inviting, each hiding some treasures in side.

Traditionally, the cakes are stuffed with a bean-paste, but mankinds drive for variety has led to a hostof new  flavor delights, including fruit-flavors such as pinapple and coconut, green tea, cashew and lotus seed, and other flavors I cannot recognize. 

                             No egg-yolk was hiding inside this Mooncake, though that is common in more traditional ones.

There are of course musical and other cultural aspects of a thousands of years old holiday, including Lion dances, lanterns to add to the moonlight, and songs and music. You might enjoy this collage of music and images that captures a bit of the sense of magic of this holiday intended to help re-connect children and their busy parents at the time the harvest was concluded. http://youtu.be/WmlDBgW5BJs

The Hanoi Branch has seen fit to make the holiday a reason to re-connect people as well, and hosted a branch social organized by the Young Single Adults group. They had a lot of fun planning the event, making the decorations and preparing games and refreshments. A Banyan tree (Cây Đa) came to life through their efforts for example, and a bright yellow moon peered through it's still leafy branches. 

                                    

                                  

The gathering had a lot of energy and we tried to augment that by offering some "Family Home Evening" consultations on the side for any of the parents who wanted to step aside into a quieter space for a minute or two. But the magic of watching little kids excitement may have made that mostly a pipe dream.

      

          The flashing lights in her butterfly wings made this young mistress hard to miss!

In the process of preparing for this version of family relations education we discovered some of the various resources that are available here, as well as some of those that aren't. We were gratified to see the talents being used to render English video resources into versions with Vietnamese sub-titles. We could use more media like this: http://youtu.be/PeAMPGxqiE8

For our English class this week, we tried to explain what a "wiki" was and how that fit with the concept of Wikipedia, which many of our class had used. We then proceded to try to create a mock entry around the traditions and celebration of Tet Trung Thu. It was actually somewhat revealing that many of our students didn't know a lot about the backgrond of the holiday and really struggled to come up with much as far as dance or costumes. Most of them however, could recall their favorite flavor of Mooncake. 

The clear highlight of that evening however was right off the bat, when Uncle Khanh said he had something important to say that would take a few minutes. We yielded the floor to him and he proceeded to relate what an important event had occurred one month earlier when Elder Holland visited. And he carefully recounted three things that he felt were the core message not to be forgotten from this visit by an Apostle of Jesus Christ. "Do it right from the beginning; learn and read all you can about leading the church and don't even think about leaving it; and Make the choices that will change your circumstances rather than waiting for others to change your circumstances." Though he is not a card-carrying member yet, his witness of the impact of an inspired message certainly touched many others who were there.

We continue our efforts to help connect and re-connect lives to the Tree of Life, the Light of Life, and the Lion of the Lord's house, Jesus Christ. I've been working with some fine young men in re-organizing and educating the men of the congregation in "watching over" the other members of the church. That duty, given to all who hold the priesthood, is commonly implemented in the form of "assigning" people to be the visiting friends to other families, to love them, serve them and watch out for them. But in units where the numbers of willing hands are limited, the kilometers are many, and the numbers of people needing watch-care high, such as this small congregation, we will need to think beyond that traditional model for a while yet. But if they knew the joy that awaits them in such work of ministering in the stead of Christ, they would be most eager I think. Thankfully there is inspired general and very individual help available in making the hard decisions about which families receive an assigned friend, and which are watched over by other means. 

Our goal in doing this is to make the Hanoi Branch of the Church one that God trusts to take proper care of his precious children. I feel quite certain that when he trusts us to watch over and nurture others, he will send both the further shepherds for the flock, and add to the flock more abundantly. We have several shepherds in training with this re-organization that I suspect are part of the test of his trust in us.

Peak Experiences are often One by One

In a world where we experience "pocket calls" and "photo bombs," terms which just refuse to be translatable, I am struck by the similarities in what constitutes a peak experience, the exhilarating moments when one feels an emotional high from what has been done. Ask just about any pathologist what those moments are and they will not say anything about finally getting the standard deviations into line on a new immunoassay, of working out the cut-off limits for normal on a new methodology for measuring the cis- form of isoporcelyn, and probably not finally getting the night shift to hand-off the problem box cases to the morning shift completely. Rather they will probably think back to a single patient, someone whose diagnostic biopsy was intensely challenging for some reason, but that they were able to figure out using their skills in morphology, sleuthing, and data gathering (i.e. getting more stains!) Solving the problem is the thrill for me (and I think many others) as a pathologist, and that is most especially so when it is for the good of that one patient, here today, under duress and stress wondering what their course will be ahead.

What is remarkable to me is that the same principle applies in the work we are doing now as well. The moments when one sees progress in a single individual are most meaningful. Those are the peak moments that fuel and abundantly reward our journey through endless hours of preparation, language study and mental rehearsals of what we can say, not to mention much prayer, and even fasting. We are only at the beginning of this trek, and trust that there are many strenuous peaks ahead, but the experiences with individuals thus far have provided sweet tastes of that exhilaration of which I speak. 

Here are a few individual moments from the recent past that stand out:

Sitting and counseling with a young man who had just resigned his job for both good reasons and not so good, and listening, occasionally commenting, and suggesting ways that he could repair the rift with the employer so that he could still work honorably with them in other capacities if required, and potentially receive a recommendation if needed;

Pouring over a case report prepared by one of our K Hospital colleagues, her first attempt to do such a thing in English, and an effort that clearly represented both the encouragement we had given her as well as a strong sense of faith and trust that this effort would be compassionately received and edited;

      

         English learners in white at Hospital 108

Standing in the waters of baptism with a young man who lives far from the organized branch, but which he dearly wanted to join and support, in preparation for ultimately serving his own mission, and making his own life a blessing to others;

Participating in offering a laying on of hands blessing to a young woman who had not participated in the church for quite some while, and who has been nursing the wounds suffered from the actions of a poorly behaving father, and feeling the love of God for her, while at the same time seeing open up before her the great promises of a better life, a healed soul, and indeed, all the blessings that the gospel isdesigned to bring to mankind;

Watching a young leader's eyes light up as we explain the strength and revelation that come as they unite with their counselors in a council to solve a challenge;

And seeing the faithfulness and hope in the eyes of a young, soon-to-be-father, recently a member of the church, as he talked about his hopes for being able to be joined by his wife and unborn child in the circle of gospel covenants.

     

      MB with new members of the Thao Dien Branch

None of these are headline news, any more than would be the report of a studious pathologist returned on the biopsy of a nasal or bone tumor in a young child, or a breast lesion in a care-giving grandmother. But these are the fabric of human interactions of love and concern, of the faith and contract that we share with one another as covenanting saints, or even just fellow sojourners on earth. We're happy to have front line views of the interactions that bring these peak moments, yet also grateful for the chances from time to time to step aside and nurture others in those roles as well.