make them who they are

If you had met Yeme on the day she arrived to the ship, you would probably have been horrified. Even by Mercy Ships' standards, her problem was a grave one. The back of one of her legs was a tumor from hip to ankle, a massive, smelly growth that made up almost a fifth of her body weight. Above one of her eyes grows another tumor, deforming her eye socket and warping the line of her cheek. You would have stared.

It wouldn't have made any difference to Yeme, though, because she wouldn't have met your eyes. She didn't meet anyone's eyes when she came. Her family sent her here from Guinea to be fixed. Dropped her off at the gate where she stayed for hours until someone noticed her and brought her inside to a cold world where no one speaks her language. I have a hard time not getting angry at her family for abandoning her like they did, but I guess I can see why they were desperate.

She's been here a couple weeks now, and Yeme is so different from that downcast, frightened child who had to be coaxed through our doors. The tumor on her leg has been almost completely removed. She's waiting for more surgeries to graft skin over her wounds and take out the growth above her eye. She smiles. She laughs. She colours and makes beaded bracelets like it's her job. She is beautiful. She always has been.

Eric, one of our translators, prayed for the patients during handover this morning.

Make them, oh God, who they are.

That's it, isn't it? That's what we're trying to do here. Trying to peel back the layers of disease and deformity that enshroud these victims of a fallen world. Revealing the truth: that these are glorious creatures, formed in the image of a beautiful God. I will never stop being grateful to that God that He allows us to be the hands and hearts that are part of making these people who they are.