Charcoaled Hand

CAUTION:

Graphic picture below.

Please proceed at your own risk.

We were told of a lady who severely burnt her hand. We were asked if we could look at it to see if there was anything we could do for her. When we arrived at sweet Margaret's place, she was sitting on a bamboo mat with her hand wrapped in several different rags. We asked if she could show us her hand. She slowly peeled back the rags. You can see the pain she's going through just by the expressions on her face. After about the fourth or fifth rag she pulled off she finally revealed to us a severely burnt hand. But this hand was not just burnt....

It was covered in charcoal. Supposedly, the word around the street is that charcoal helps heal burns. At the time we were brought to her we were actually running late for lunch. So we told her we would come back in the afternoon. We asked the villagers around if they could boil us a jerrycan full of water so that we could soak her hand to loosen up the charcoal a bit.

When we arrived back there in the afternoon, we asked them if they could bring us the boiled water and a basin. They responded with, "we didn't boil any water but we can get you some from the well." At this point I was slightly frustrated because we made such a huge point to them of boiling water for us. So I told them, "we have to have boiled water, now we won't have enough time to work on her hand." And they replied with, "why do you need boiled water, you can do the exact same thing with cold water as what you can with hot water. It doesn't need to be hot, she just has to soak her hand." Oh boy...! They obviously had no clue that boiled water meant clean water not just hot water. So I explained to them that the reason we wanted boiled water was because when you boil water it kills all the bugs and germs and makes it clean. Luckily, we had another patient we needed to treat in Namatala so we told them to boil water while we were gone and we would be back to work on her hand.

We had a limited amount of water but did what we could with what we had. The first day we spent about an hour to an hour and a half picking off a good majority of the charcoal, and the second day, we spent another hour getting the remaining charcoal off. It was a grueling and painful process. The smell alone could make you pass out. But Margaret was a trooper the entire time.

The most incredible thing and all glory be to God for this one: she has movement in her fingers, there was blood coming from the burn, and she could feel pain in her hand. Praise the Lord! These are all very good signs towards recovery. From the looks of her hand the first day, I would have guessed that she would not have full mobility in her hand. Because the burn was around her entire wrist and half way up her fingers, the chances of movement is slim. But, God is still in the miracle business and He has been healing her hand.

Please pray for continued healing over Margaret's hand. Also pray for Margaret and her family's salvation. The last Sunday we were there, her and a few others from her "hut cluster" came to church. 

Another HUGE prayer request for her and her family, as well as the rest of Namatala, is for their need for alcohol. Margaret got this wound from being drunk. She walked into her hut one night, completely drunk, while her kid was boiling water. She knocked over the boiling water and it poured all over her hand. Namatala becomes a very dangerous area at night because of all the people drinking and smoking. Pray that Satan would be removed from this area and that God's light would shine through to all the people there. Pray that the adults would be an example to the younger generation and fight this problem of alcoholism. Also pray for those who are brewing this alcohol as a source of income. Pray that God would provide another way for them to support their families.