We are not called to understand; we’re called to follow. But, walking with is higher than following.
When Lametu arrived at the military hospital in Laputo, she was mentally not prepared for the sight that met her eyes. As a member of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) assigned to be part of the UN Peace-keeping Force, she had been to different war zones but nothing had shaken her as the sight in Laputo, the Marawean capital.
Her first reaction was anger – anger at the leaders of Marawe. Whatever may be the disagreement, whatever may be the gripe between them, the horrible sight at the hospital was the result of it: the action and reaction of man’s inability to control self.
The hospital was overflowing with the sick and the wounded. In her calculation, the ratio of doctors to the wounded was about one doctor to 500 – 600 patients. And the number continued to swell by the day as wounded men; women and children were carried from all over Marawe to the only functional hospital in the countrywhich was heavily guarded by the UN presence.
All Major Lametu Nguchi could do that first day was to take photographs. She tried to capture on celluloid, mutilated bodies; diseased and decaying bodies and send them to UN Headquarters in New York, to the gentlemen and ladies who sat in cosy offices trying to cut thick woods with blunt axes. She would show them the reality on ground.
The issue of Jospus, the guerrilla leader (aka) the Mad Dog of Marawe, who went about disfiguring, mutilating and killing Maraweans in a bid to make his voice heard in the UN, had gone beyond dialogue. Jospus did not need dialogue – he was not that refined, he needed hunting down and mowing down – he was a beast! It was a pity that cameras could not capture the stench of rotten flesh and human waste prevalent in the hospital.
Lametu was not a medical person but the situation in Laputo was so bad that they had to send an SOS to the UN forces in some Marawean villages where they were protecting lives,to come over to Laputo and help them. Law and order had completely broken down in Marawe, especially in Laputo. Many had fled the capital city and many more fled the villages. Left in the country were mainly the poor, the sick and the wounded.
In the hospital,work was enormous; food was scarce, so also was medicine; and rest non-existent. Lametu worked four days at a stretch before realising that no prayer of any kind or songs to God were going on in the hospital. The realisation shocked her. She accosted a Marawean soldier.
“What happened?”she asked him. “You people don’t pray here?”
He looked at her with something akin to pity and observed, “You must be pretty new in the country. Marawe has lost her religion. There is a new discovery. Where are you coming from? Jesus isn’t divine. He was just an ordinary guy who wanted to be famous. He pretended to die on the cross while his lady friend who was heavy with their child carried him off to Gaul, the South of France. There they had their baby and lived happily ever after.”
Lametu’s spirit sank.
“Who told you that junk?” she asked the ill-clad Marawean soldier, horrified that the Dan Brown’s Da Vinci deception had reached these war-broken people and they believed it.
“Jospus, of course,”the poorly clad soldier said. “He was on the radio 24/7 broadcasting this in vernacular, telling folks to stop going to church, that there’s no power in such superstition. To demonstrate the powerlessness of the church, he burnt down many churches, mutilated worshippers and, you know what? He got away with it. God didn’t defend anybody. Jospus is alive and well and the hospital is overflowing with those he sent here.”
Lametu stood transfixed with her mouth open. She was speechless for a moment until she remembered the scripture that said, ‘because sentence against an evil thing is not done speedily, the heart of men is set in them to do evil.’
The soldier continued ironically, “Jospus was having a field day here until you UN guys came and drove him into hiding. Officer, the whole concept of religion is baseless and the false prophets have been run out of town by the Mad Dog of Marawe.”
When Lametu found her voice, she said, “Don’t let a deceived heart stop needy folks from seeking help from their Maker.”
The Marewean soldier snorted in disgust shaking his head pitifully at her before saying,“We’re liberated here, officer. All over Europe and other developed nations of the world, it’s the Da Vinci code that holds sway now. Although we’re in a war,we’re still abreast with World Current Affairs. However, we have more important things to do than prayers, don’t we, officer? Let’s help the sick and the wounded.”
He began to walkaway; Lametu stopped him.
“But, don’t you see that these people need divine intervention? They need God!”
“There’s no such thing, officer!” he spat and walked away.
The situation was mournful. From time immemorial, man has always turned to his maker in times of great need, but not so in Laputo – the people turned away from God! Evil was so much in Laputo that men had become super-insensitive to the feelings of others.
A Marewean soldier had taken one look at Lametu when she first arrived at the military hospital, and exclaimed, “Why, you’re ugly! Couldn’t they find pretty girls to cheer us up in this crazy place?”
Lametu could break his neck in combat, she was that trained, but she smiled at him sweetly shocking him and said, “God will make us all beautiful in His time.”
A bullet had ruined her face in Sudan during that country’s civil war, leaving her face all stitched up and ugly.
Lametu sought the permission of the Military Medical Director (MMD), to pray and preach Jesus Christ in the hospital. The MMD, Brigadier Yacobo Seko, a man she had met in the DR Congo war some three years back, gave it with a shrug of his stiff broad shoulders as if it was a non-essential.
It was an uphill task to preach, pray, sing and read out Bible passages to Mareweans in Laputo Military Hospital. Her words bounced back on her – no one received it. Lametu prayed that God would heal, nobody was healed; she prayed for peace, none came; quoted the scripture in Ecclesiastics 8:11 &12, about the delayed sentence but, obviously, Jospus waxed stronger by the number of the wounded that joined them each day.
In four weeks,Lametu had preached all she knew in between taking care of the patients; she had confessed all that she knew; sang all the songs she knew, and was almost despairing.
Nevertheless, she kept on defiantly for she had certain intelligence from the Holy Scriptures about God.
One night as she flopped down on her bed in utter exhaustion and must have dozed off, she heard a voice calling her, “Lametu! Lametu! Come, walk with me child! Come, walk with me!”
She saw herself walk through the wards, nothing happened. She saw the one who called her walk through the wards, nothing happened. Then she saw the two of them walk through the wards and things began to happen: healings, creative miracles, even the living dead, rose. Where death sat like a visiting uncle waiting to take his victim, he rose and fled, making the sick jump up in good health!
Lametu jumped up. It was a dream. Or was it? She ran swiftly to the wards – nothing was happening– in fact, a few people had died. She walked away with her shoulders down;disappointed but not really in despair. There was something inside her, a kinetic energy within her that kept a connection with a certain hope she acquired through interactions with scriptures that God would always come through no matter how late by human calculation. All through her missions as amember of the UN Peace-keeping force, this hope had never snapped. At that moment, as she began to walk away, she felt this energy rise within her and filled her with a passion like liquid fire.
Suddenly, she stopped and cried to the people near the Intensive Care Unit, “We must build up trust in God’s holiness; He does not fail, people! Unholy people promise and fail but not so Jehovah – He is holy!”
Then she became angry at the people’s passiveness and screamed at them, “Why sit you there and allow Satan to take away your health, your wealth, your life? If an enemy rises up against you with a machete, won’t you fight back? Would you allow yourself to be butchered? If he goes for your life, wouldn’t you resist him? If you sit idly by and die, you die for nothing and you go to hell for your not trying; for not fighting back, for not resisting.
God hates people who do not resist evil. You cannot lay down your life: Jesus has already laid down His life for you to live. Rise up, Mareweans! Fight the devil! Say No to death and to destruction. Resist evil in your land! Save your life and your country! Pray, people, pray! If you had believed once but didn’t see your needs met, believe again – don’t stop, don’t turn away! War, Mareweans, war! War with praise, war with prayer, war with worship and war with the word – read it and confess it and refuse to let go until you see it come to pass. Be resilient!”
She was suddenly tired and filled with weariness; the enormity of the situation fell heavily on her. She turned and walked away; weeping at the hardness of their hearts, back to her quarters.
To be continued…
