I WAS SICK AND YOU VISITED ME

Jesus' compassion for the sick, the widows, strangers, and orphans, is evident when you read Mathew 25:35-36d. Our reaction towards those who have no advocate and are unable to help themselves gives us an indication of the authority of the bond we admit to having with Christ. Jesus is very straightforward when he let us understand that to see Him we must recognize Him in the hungry, the sick, the strangers, the thirsty and the ones in prison around us. We must love Him through these oppressed humans.

"I was sick and you looked after me" Mathew 25:36b

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"When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Mathew 25:39-40

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I have been working for over 45 years with sick people. Some had regular visits from family and friends while others were never visited by anybody. Some of those patients were discharged and some passed away without any family or friends.

I was sick and you did not look after me

I was working in a hospital which mostly served the mining community. Most of the mine workers came from Lesotho, Botswana or Transkei, some from Mozambique. Most of these men stayed in the mine hostels while others stayed in an informal settlement, called 'Snatch Block,' or 'Smasha Block', as most of the people call it. This settlement is not too far from the mine but about 40 km from the hospital. Most of the men's wives or girlfriends are staying at 'Smash Block' with their children. 'Smasha Block' was a breeding ground for any illness you can think of. We had to take care of patients after they have been treated by sangomas or witch doctors and nearly lost their lives. Some were not so lucky, especially the little babies.

The settlement was a nightmare, especially over the weekends and mainly when people were paid. They drink a lot and then fight, one month they will stab one another with broken bottles, the next month with knives and adding to the excitement they will also shoot one another. This kept us busy for hours, suturing wounds and treating alcohol poisoning. Some patients were brought in on a Friday night and will only realize on Monday morning that they are in a strange place, surrounded by strangers.
The hospital was always very busy on weekends. There is a lot of illnesses, especially HIV. Most of the patients have HIV and by the time they come to the hospital, they are already very sick.

Patient from Lesotho, the Mountain Kingdom

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One of my patients that I will never forget, a woman in her forties, was brought to the hospital by the ambulance. She was emaciated, dehydrated and already in the final stages of HIV/AIDS. Al we could do was to make her comfortable and treat her for the opportunistic illnesses. After a month of hospitalization, she reached the end of her illness and was busy dying. She was disorientated and were screaming and crying, we could not make out what she was saying but one of the patients could speak her language, which was Sotho, and could translate for us. The patient asked that we must phone her family whom she has not seen since she has been admitted to the hospital. We tried all the numbers on her file. Her 'husband' on the mine did not answer, and her family in Lesotho did not answer. We called the police to help but they were also unsuccessful to locate the family. This was absolutely traumatic for us as nursing staff, to see someone dying and all she asked for was to see her family, to go home to be with them.

Nursing staff took over the role of the family

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It was heartbreaking to hear a patient calling her family and we could not find any of them. Her only wish was to be with them in her final hours on this earth, for them to perhaps listen to her last wishes, what to do with her children or maybe to forgive someone. But nobody visited her in the month she was hospitalized, no-one phoned. All we could do was to comfort her and to pray for her and we also sang a couple of songs for her. She eventually calmed down and accepted the nursing staff as her 'family' in her final hours of life, she passed away in the early morning hours, with us still at her side, and she did look at peace, happy to be relieved of the cruelty of the people who are supposed to be your loved-ones and people with little or no compassion. Her soul left on the wings of her angels.

My family is important to me

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"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27

"Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him."Job2:11

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