By Caroline Crawford
Continued from: The Forgotten: An Outcast in India (Pt. 1)
Two days later we were back at the leper colony. I was all excited to go visit my friend, to continue to sit with him. I had learned that his name is “Moseleb” but most people in the colony simply call him “nana” which means “grandfather.”
He has five children, four daughters and one son. His son, the prized-possession in every family here in India, died a year ago in an auto accident. Moseleb was devastated about the loss of his son and since that point his sickness has rapidly increased.
We rounded the corner to where his small space is located and I recognized his wife, Janapai, standing outside their place. She had tears running down her face and a look of total desperation. I ran up to her and hugged her. I looked into her eyes, trying to understand what could be the problem. She motioned her head to the right.
As I turned, I saw him.
Moseleb was hunched over, head to the concrete ground, on the floor. His left arm, the one that I kept rewrapping in the dishrag to cover his wounds the other day, was huge. In two days it had blown up to probably four times its size. The wounds were horribly infected and there were patches of purple and bright red skin down his arm.
I immediately ran indoors and fell to the ground hugging his side so as not to cause more pain. He looked up with tears in his eyes and with the same silent cries of shear pain. He kept rocking back and forth, his right hand clutching his left shoulder. Every so often he would cry out in utter desperation.
I just cried. I sat there, clutching his side, rubbing his back gently, and cried. Tears fell down my face to the concrete floor as I prayed for the Lord to intervene with His healing power and bring complete relief of pain. There, on that floor in the middle of the leper colony, the only hope was Jesus.
So I sat there rocking with him and cried out for Jesus to come. To heal. To bring his peace.
And Moseleb, not understanding a word I was praying, continued to rock back and forth, tears of pain running down his face. He continued to cry out with his voiceless shout of utter pain that makes you want to curl up into your own ball out of total inadequacy.
What do you do in this situation? I’m not back in the states where I can pick up the nearest phone and call for help. I’m sitting in the middle of a leper colony in India. There are no doctors to see. There is no phone to call for help. There is no ointment to put on the wounds or bandages to wrap around. There is no pain medicine for him to pop into his mouth. There wasn’t even a common language to understand what was going on beyond what was visible. The absolute only thing to lean on was the healing grace of Jesus.
So I cried “JESUS”, the name of healing, the name of power, the name of love, over and over again upon Moseleb’s broken, outcasted, forgotten body trusting my Father hears every cry from his children.
After a long while of sitting, praying, and crying, Moseleb got tired and laid down. I did my best to explain to his wife we would be back again by hand motion. I am sure she had no idea what I was saying. I gave him one final hug. And then I left, walking silently from their small place in the leper colony, feeling the weight of the reality of a hurting, loved-beyond-compare, family.
In a few days I’ll be back again. First thing I’m going to do when I get there is look for the beloved son of our Living God. My hope continues to be Jesus for Moseleb. I am standing on the healing power of Jesus to restore his wounded, infected arm back to health. And even more than that, to restore a wounded, hurting man to a place of surpassing peace and joy.
The hope must be Jesus.
Always.
To be continued…
If you liked this article, check out: The Heart of a Leper
Caroline grew up in Connecticut in a small town with pretty much the same people from Kindergarten through Senior year of high school. Since committing her life over to Jesus at a Young Life club meeting, life has never been the same. Before entering her senior year of college, she went on a two-month mission trip to Kenya . The trip changed her life and led to her currently traveling the world.