The mosquito. One of Africa's most deadly creatures. According to NetsForLife (http://www.netsforlifeafrica.org/malaria/malaria-statistics) "over half a million (655, 000) people die from malaria each year, mostly children younger than five years old. There are an estimated 216 million cases of malaria each year." Ethiopia experiences cycles of malaria epidemics every five to eight years, but according to USAID these epidemics have decreased over recent years. This is mainly due to preventative measures such as insecticide-treated nets, spraying operations, and anti-malarial drugs.
Of course, this is wonderful news and hopefully the downward trend will continue...how many lives will not be saved if we can conquer those protozoan parasites!
But there is another killer in Africa...one that rears its ugly head from time to time with devastating force. It is not easy to identify nor is it easy to prevent or treat, but it is there and we ignore it to our own peril.
Trauma.
Of the 35,000 inhabitants of one of the refugee camps in Gambela, about 80 % are between the ages of 12 and 17. These children have experienced violence and fear on a level we cannot begin to imagine even in our wildest nightmares.
What is happening inside them, behind those cherubic faces? Is anyone helping them to deal with those images of horror and the reverberating screams of their parents and peers?
What lies dormant now may not lie dormant forever. History teaches us that anger is but one letter removed from danger. It lies simmering beneath the surface until some trigger is pulled and the trauma explodes with thunderous violence.
Saving people from malaria is a wonderful thing to do. Saving people from extermination through war and persecution and famine and poverty is equally commendable. But leaving people unsaved from the festering power of hatred and bitterness is unforgivable.
There is only one who can reach into the depths of a person...there is only one who can heal the putrid psyche of the suffering...there is only one who can dispel the darkness trapped in the soul of the tortured...and that is Christ...the one, who in the depths of His own personal darkness and despair, cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
At the recent opening of the Church of the Holy Family in a new refugee camp located in the southern part of the Gambela People's Region, several different ethnic groups gathered together to worship Him whose blood made them one...while just across the border ethnic violence raged on. These men, women, and children are witnesses to the fact that the suffering Saviour brings healing to His suffering servants.
It is by His stripes that they are healed, as it is His stripes that can remove the sting of their own. His response of forgiveness to those who afflicted Him defies the logic of retaliation, and it is in embracing Him that they are enabled to let go. It is only Christ who can break the cycle of "trauma epidemics" and it is only us, His people, who can bring this eternal preventative measure to bear upon the lives of those who need release.
Shared from Revival Tabernacle's Facebook page.
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