Another hospital visit

Hospital visits are becoming a bit of a habit on this sabbatical. The last one was 7 weeks ago in Tanzania, to see a beautiful but wounded little girl who had badly broken her arm (see 12th June, Hospital emergency). She is recovering well! This visit was entirely different.
This is part of the university hospital in the capital, Pristina, on a really hot day - 35C. Such a contrast to the brand new university hospital in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania - and such a contrast to hospitals in the UK. (If you live in the UK, please be very grateful for the NHS.)

We were invited by Jeton the pastor here, to visit a very sick man, Deda, the older brother of Krist, one of the church members. We were grateful to travel the hour and a half journey to get there in Ilir and Helen's air conditioned car.
Deda has a problem with alcohol addiction. He has been hospitalised before but after a few months found the attraction of drink too much to resist. This time his liver packed up completely and the doctors gave him a day to live when he was admitted. They've drawn off a total of about 10 litres of fluid from his abdomen in the last two weeks because his whole system had started to shut down.
This church believes in the healing power of Jesus (though not naively as some do), so the pastor has led us in prayer for Deda on a number of occasions. Two weeks later, he has defied the expectations of the medics and walked with us to a shady spot on the steps outside his unit this afternoon, though he did need a wheelchair to sit in. (The foot support on the wheelchair was a bandage strung between the two front wheels.)
Deda is still a very sick man, with a predictably sad story of relationship breakdown and estrangement from his wife and children. Seeking solace from a bottle/needle is always a short term anaesthetic/solution to inner pain.
We talked with him and then Jeton invited me to pray for him, with Deda's permission. I knelt by his wheelchair and asked God to continue his healing in Deda's body, but more importantly for inner healing. I found it a humbling experience that he would allow me to do that since he didn't know me, and especially when he apologised that I had had to kneel. I have no idea whether Deda will recover, but I do know this: God loves this broken human being just as much as he loves me - and you - and he demonstrated it this afternoon through prayer and through his people.
And yes, this is yet another prayer request: please pray for Deda, for Krist and their family.

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