restoring design

What’s it all about?

It’s been a busy few weeks as this place has swung into action. The Hospital laid dormant for a couple of months – it became a thoroughfare, a building site, a warehouse…. a place I did not recognize.

But as the mooring lines landed just 3 weeks ago and the medical staff stopped their work as cooks and cleaners and dining room workers and returned to Deck 3... the place took on new life. The work of the Father became evident in it again. He was making it all new. He had been there all the time.

You see without the building site part, it could never be the Hospital part. We don’t exist independently. Without the restoring and creative work of the engineers and electricians and carpenters…. this place we call a Hospital would have crumbled away a while back – or at least not be functioning as well as it does. Every year there is work unseen – pipes are laid, rooms are renovated, floors are re-laid – it all goes on when the Hospital staff have escaped… our part of the ‘body’ takes some rest whilst another part works diligently.  They do it for us. They do their part, so we can do ours. Humbling isn’t it.

And that’s what our Hospital is all about. That’s what is at the heart of it. Our Heavenly Father – He’s always restoring His design. Whether it’s in our furnishing and function… whether it’s in the hearts and minds of those who work here as our rough edges brush up against others… or whether it’s a tumour invaded face finding it’s form again or an arm able to envelop another for the first time in years…. it’s all about restoring function.

It’s endless.

Whether it’s the songs of the ladies who pace the corridors on their daily walks as they recover from the injuries of traumatic labour – the unity they find, the solidarity, the safety – healing not just for their leaking bladders but in their hearts too. Or the cries of children as they process the fear and the unknown of being on a big white ship…. and find love…. or even the simple hernia that has troubled a proud man for years that gets repaired….

Restoring design. It’s the heart of our Father. And it’s what we’re all about.

So here’s to 35 weeks of surgery ahead, to the sharing of knowledge, to the mentoring opportunities that will deposit hope and release life, to clubfeet which will learn to dance on the injustice that they were born into.  To the thousands of Malagasy who will teach us not of the ‘poor and needy’ but what it is to be rich in heart and beautiful in spirit. To the opportunities to learn from each other and discover new life. To restored design in whatever form.

We watch with thanks that we get to be a part of the story. For all the restoring that He has already done and will continue to do…. we give Him all the Glory.