Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. - John 8:12
This verse I found to be so relevant to the situation that has occurred in Sulawesi over the past couple of months. Recently I had travelled to Indonesia with a conservation organisation called ENRICH, who were focusing on sea turtle conservation. On our first trip to Sulawesi, Indonesia, we met a young adult by the name of Meldi. Meldi was greatly interested in learning about the Sea turtles and helping out. On our return in July for our second trip to Sulawesi, we had heard news that Meldi had broken his leg. Normally in Sulawesi they amputate broken limbs as they do not have the resources or knowledge to repair these injuries. Meldi’s family is from an extremely poor village where the monthly wage is about $100, so the option of getting treatment at the hospital was not available for them. They took Meldi to a traditional doctor who would then try to massage the bones back together without any pain killers or medication. I knew from that moment that God had put me in the right place at the right time. We tried to track Meldi down to see what was going on but we had no luck as there was no mobile reception anywhere. To our surprise Meldi showed up three days before we were going and this is what we saw.
The two bones in Meldi’s leg had broken and he was in a great deal of pain, imagine someone massaging two broken bones and with no pain killers. We had to leave Sulawesi and come back to Australia. Coming back to a place where there would be no problem to get an injury like this fixed, it was more a matter of time before it was healed; I felt extremely guilty for living in a place like this and not doing something about it. I had heard news that the situation had gotten worse and Meldi’s leg was losing all its muscle content. I along with ENRICH the conservation organisation were going to find a doctor that would complete the surgery and we would pay for all medical expenses. Easier said than done, we could not find Meldi for about a month as he was having treatment at the previous traditional doctor and finding a surgeon that would do the operation was almost just as hard. After an emotional month of setbacks, we had found Meldi and a doctor that would complete the operation- it had now been by that stage three months since Meldi had broken his leg.
The operation was completed and went extremely well. A pin was put into Meldi’s leg and the bone behind was left to heal on its own. Meldi was on his way to recovery which was such a blessing to myself and all the people that had been helping during this process. I had been able to do some fundraising at work, where people had generously donated to this cause without even knowing him. The other funds had come from the Enrich organisation, myself and some other volunteers who knew Meldi.
We returned again in September to Sulawesi where I was able to see Meldi and go to some doctor’s appointments with him. We saw x-rays and spoke to the surgeon, this was so rewarding as for such a long time I had been hearing and seeing everything through a computer. Whilst we were living in the village where Meldi is from, I met his family. Can I say that this was the most rewarding experience of my life. Meldi’s mother had explained to me that one of the days when Meldi was in so much pain she felt so helpless, she was in her garden and was praying to God that something would happen for Meldi and that he would be able to walk again and keep his leg. Little did she know what was going on with us as we were trying to orchestrate the operation for Meldi . Meldi’s mother started to cry as she was thanking us for what we had done, and by that time I started to ball my eyes out as well. It was then I saw perfectly clear that God had put me in the right place at the right time, and I am so thankful to God for using me, because I feel that I gained so much through this whole experience, have made friends for life, and at the same time have been able through God to change someone’s life. All I can do in this situation is thank and praise God for what he has done here.
