Effectual doer

A father's daughter

Below is a facebook consultation  or conversation I had from a father about a daughter’s health. on Facebook. Two days later with Imo app we had a video call follow-up with Barb  RN, with tropical health experience. Besides observation and knowing common tropical diseases there is also experience in play as well. 

But with a 14 year old daughter there can be other issues as well. Nothing beats a personal exam and appropriate lab, imaging scans, and tests to get more information for a useful diagnoses. The father who has to come up with a game plan has to find help with the medicine over in Liberia. Healthcare for the poor has many obstacles.

We will have another video chat this week in follow-up.

Facebook conversation

“We are fine, How are you?” Bill

“I'm doing good except my daughter.” Father

“Tell me more please?”

"My 14 year old daughter fell off at school, and was carried at the government hospital, (Buchanan, Grand Bassa) the doctor diagnosed nothing and she continued to be weak.” Father

“Did the doctor have any thoughts as to what might be reasons for weaknesses?” Bill

Nothing was said.... I'm thinking about malaria or low blood pressure... But she's fat and looks healthy only for the constant weakness…(what we think the father was referring to is Malaria and anemia caused by destroyed red blood cells from the disease. Fat means healthy and not a body racked with disease and lost of weight.)

This worried me a lot.” Father

“Yes, Barb is not home, but I would like for you and her to work through this”

OK , I will make a call on Sunday night by God's grace.” Bill

"Normally she is home by now," Bill

“OK  then, I'll make that call tomorrow same time,” Father. 

What would you make of the above info?

I gave our talk notes to Barb for her analysis. In Liberia, Elaine Laczny and Barb Reeves  would do the consultation and

Barb RN & my
beauty

possible diagnosis with treatment. I played no part in that process unless I was part of the communicating process which was very rare. They were the experts. They were good at it. Medical support beyond our clinic was rarely in our control. For the poor indigenous Liberian support was rare in those days. If you worked for a company, a foreigner with money, a descended from the Liberian Colonization families which populated the coastline and ran the country at that time. If you were Bassa or the other 15 native tribes to Liberia, medical care was hard indeed. 

Care today is given to more people but it is still uneven. In Monrovia is the better support than the other coastal towns like Buchanan.

In a phone conversation the father wants the doctor to prescribe the treatment and he doesn't want to self medicate. Imagine going to an office and nothing said or done with no care plan. Yet this is a reality for many in Liberia poor. 

The daughter continues to be sick. 

There are poor and sick and needy all over the place. A balanced Christian faith requires a beneficial expression of the faith in “word and deed” Col. 3:17. We can’t keep quite and we can’t stop being motivated in sharing God’s love in practical ways. The two go hand in hand. 

In James 1:25b-27 “an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit (care) orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” 

I want to become an effectual doer. Yep, I want to be an effective communicator who encourages people in the faith, but where the rubber meets the road I want to help those who need it. Having a loose tongue tears down people to build up oneself and being influenced to practice sin that destroys and hurts people and confuses our walk with God. We have to work on this stuff everyday. If you look at these verses it tells us we have a religion as well as a relationship with God. I know you will hear well-meaning people say that they don't have a religion but relationship with God, don't be too hard on them, (bridal your tongue) refers to a bit in the mouth of a horse to control the horse to the riders’s withes. Here we want our words to under the influence of the Spirit of God to communicate His love and our thoughts to be balanced and beneficial. But we do have a religion. 

James further helps with helping the needy in 2:15, 16 In verse 14 Faith and works are 

Faith	Works
Romans “God sees” vs. 4:2	James “you see” vs. 2:18, 22, 24
God trumps our view	We will eventually know God’s view
God knows his own sheep	We are fruit inspectors

discussed. In Romans it is faith that God always sees that saves. We have difficulty seeing inside another's thoughts, but God does not. What we see are the works and James picks up works from our point of view. Works validate what is going

Hospital in Buchanan, Grand Bassa

on in the heart. But even here we can be deceived. God is never deceived He knows. 

I few years ago, God wanted me to be specific in my care of the poor. He wanted me personally involved with real people.  note what James says,

2:15 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

I think sometimes we can’t walk away. That is what the fatman walking in Liberia is all about. Right now I feel very limited in what I can do. Pray, yes but follow up with some action. Clinics supported by the internet can really help. Doctors here are seeing old people on line from their homes. Diabetes, heart rates, blood pressures and a number of other basic observations can be done at home. A video check-up may lead to a follow up at the office or a call to the pharmacists. 

I think we can extend this overseas where a consultation from the United States, Canada, Europe can be followed up by clinics to deliver life-saving care with more accurate observations and expertise. Keep walking

By the way, I could use your prayers, ideas as well. Keep walking