Point Hope

A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven…turn, turn, turn

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a right time for every event under heaven—

A right time for birth, and another for death;

A right time to plant, and another to reap.

A right time to kill, and another to heal;

A right time to destroy, and another to construct.

A right time to cry, and a time to laugh;

A right time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A right time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones;

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace, and a time to part.

A right time to search, and a time to give up as lost, count your losses;

A right time to keep, to hold on, and a time to throw away, to let go.

A right time to rip out, and a time to sew together;

A right time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A right time to love, and another to hate;

A right time for war, and another to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says there is a time for everything. [FYI, Ecclesiastes is a Greek word which can be translated, “The Teacher”.] If you were thinking, “Hey, wait, those are lyrics from the ‘60’s!”, you are partially correct.   “To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”  Peter, Paul and Mary were singing in protest of war; I’m not protesting, I’m just observing that The Teacher knew a thing or two about life.

Monday, a baby died at a hospital in Cape Coast.  There was an emergency C-section performed, the baby was in distress, but the person who had the key to the oxygen storage had not unlocked it prior to surgery and was slow in responding.  The American doctors who had come to perform a series of surgeries worked for an hour and a half to save the child, but to no avail.  To add to the situation, after all efforts were exhausted, the local medical personnel found a cardboard water bottle box, dropped the child’s body in (Jane said, “and I mean literally dropped it in”) and set the box out in the hallway. I wasn’t there, but the sadness in my new friend’s voice as she called me and described the situation and spoke of the neglect was harrowing.

I mentioned this to a couple of young Ghanaian men, co-workers with Point Hope.  They said that there will be no lawsuits, no repercussions, no accusations.  The family will say, “That is unfortunate; there is a time to be born and a time to die” and go on with their lives.   A baby dies for lack of oxygen which someone didn’t make available in the first place and then didn’t run to make available.  My Ghanaian friends said that it is unfortunate, because there is no accountability (lawsuits or legal action), some people do not give full attention to their jobs.  Wow.  Stated so matter-of-factly; I was speechless. A time to be silent.

My daughter recently had her third miscarriage.  We grieved each child and we are grieving for her and this baby, still.  Her body didn’t want to give up and continued to grow the placenta after the baby had died. She’s going through a lot of pain as her body begins to reject what is no longer alive.  Should she have gone and had a D & C and been through with it?  Maybe so, but the last time she did that it was very traumatic.  The procedure is called an abortion and, in her case, was performed without medication.  Both the procedure and the terminology were extremely painful and abhorrent to her.  She doesn’t believe in abortion and has educated people to the truth of what ending the life of a baby looks like since she was in high school. (In fact, I thought of her when Jane told me about the baby being ”dropped” in the box, as we have seen pictures of similar scenes after abortions.)   I don’t think she could face putting herself through the emotional trauma of that again; I so wish I could be there for here right now instead of being a half a world away. It is a time to mourn.

Tuesday, I met with about 50 of the 300 children Point Hope sponsors for school. They sat patiently as I tried to slow down my speech enough for them to understand (my native English and their native English…worlds apart!).  Every now and then they smiled or laughed at something I said, other times their young faces seemed to say, “what is this woman talking about?”  I asked them if they enjoyed school and only a couple were brave enough to say no (after all, who would tell the people paying for you to school that you don’t like it?).  We talked about what they did like, what their talents were, what they might like to do as they grow up.  We took a group picture (asking them to say “cheese”, because “smile!” wasn’t working).  Then at the end I had a chance to meet with the older girls, 13 to 18 years old.  I handed out personal hygiene kits that Jane and her friends had personally assembled and donated to us to distribute.  There were more pictures, of course, and thank you’s and holding up the bags to show what was given.

As everyone was leaving, one 13 year old girl came back to thank me personally for thinking of her and giving her this gift.  Then one more young woman (we are helping her through college) came back to say “thank you and may God bless you!” Do you remember when 10 lepers were healed and only one returned to say thank you?  I know exactly what that feels like and it’s pretty cool!  A time to love.

I have had a few people this trip tell me how Point Hope has touched their lives.  Some have told me how Point Hope has changed their lives.  One woman had been brutalized during the war and had no hope. She sat around all day with no purpose, nothing available to do to change her future. But something within her wanted more and she searched out someone to help her and her friends learn a trade.  Eventually, after a series of disappointments, she was lead to Mr. Chris of Point Hope.  He said he would send them to learn to batik, make soap and bake.  She didn’t know if she could believe him, but then he called and told them to meet the bus at 6:30 a.m. the next day.  She showed up, but didn’t know if the bus would. (She had no confidence because she had been promised things before that didn’t come to pass.) The bus arrived!  They began shouting and dancing and crying and praising God and thanking Point Hope.  It must have been quite the sight, I wish I could have seen it.  A time to search, a time to speak, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to dance, a time to sew, a time to love.

The Teacher knows a thing or two about life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 8:47 am.