From Death to New Life

My friend Pasca is such a blessing to me.  She loves the Word of God, but her job has prevented her from studying with me.  I visited her at work, but she worked 7 days a week, with no time off, and no time for Bible study.

Last month, the company she worked for shut down, and now she doesn’t have a job, BUT she has time to study the Word of God with me.  When we started studying, she was 34 weeks pregnant, so I knew my time was limited before the baby came.

These are some pictures of her a couple of weeks ago.  One of them is with the Maama Kit I gave her plus some feminine items.  She was so excited to pose for the pictures.

Let me back up and tell you a story about Pasca. 

On November 13, 2011, when she was three months pregnant, she was struck by lightning, along with 5 other people while they were attending a burial.

In her pain, she felt herself rise above her body.  She could see everyone below, including her body.  She called out to Jesus, and the next thing she knew she was being taken to the hospital.  She had a black mark down her back where the lightning had left its mark, but when she got to the hospital, it was gone.

The doctors said she was fine, and they discharged her the next day.  I don’t know if she died when that lightning struck, but I do know it is a miracle of God that she is okay.  One of the 6 people did die.

Back to the present, she and I have been going through the book of Hebrews.  We only had three chapters left, and I was going for chapter 11 last Saturday, but when I reached her house, some man told me she was at the hospital in labor.

Well, the truth was that she started laboring on Thursday, but she waited until Saturday morning to go to the hospital.  When I found out, I went immediately to the labor and delivery ward to see her.

There are about 15 curtains in the room, and there were women behind everyone of them laboring.  Pasca was among the 7 on the floor still laboring.  She got up off the cement to come over to me, where I was standing with all the aunties, sisters, and grandmothers.  She said, “I think I’ll be done by tonight.” 

Who talks like that when they are in labor?  

Funny lady.

She also told me that five minutes after I left the labor and delivery ward, instead of 7 women on the floor, there were at least 40.

(That leads me to a side note and a truth one of the university boys who is here now researched and shared with me.  Uganda is either second or third in the world in babies born per capita.)

Pasca sort of verified it when she said that over the time that she spent at the hospital that weekend, over 60 babies were born, with one fatality.

On Monday (her 5^th day of labor), Pasca was STILL at the hospital.  She reached 6cm and never went any farther, so they discharged her saying the babies being born were probably causing her stress, and she should go home and finish labor.

After being discharged, she sat outside the hospital “taking” tea, and pains started becoming worse than ever.  She went to talk to the nurse.  She was checked, and it seems she was back down to 4cm.  She asked the doctor to operate, sensing something was wrong. 

The doctor said he would be back in one hour to operate, but her never showed his face again.

They re-admitted her, and she finally climbed to 8cm around 6 pm.  At 8pm, the baby was coming. The midwife helping her had already clocked out of work, but was kind enough to stay with her…thankfully.  The baby couldn’t come out because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times, and there was no give.  She kept being pulled back in because the cord was too short.

The midwife took both hands, grabbed the head, and unwrapped the cord and pulled her baby girl out! 

Pasca finished the night there, came home at 11am on Tues, and when I walked to her house 5 hours later, I walked up to her outside, bent over, washing clothes!!

She was so joyous (as always), and told me what a blessing the Maama Kit had been.  Two women came to the hospital ready to deliver and since they didn’t have gloves, the nurses wouldn’t help them.  Since Pasca had the three gloves from the kit, she was glad to offer some of the other gloves her previous employer had given her. 

She also said babies were coming so fast all weekend, and there were only 2 nurses on duty.  Once, when three ladies started delivering at the same time, they could only help two, and the third had to deliver on the floor with relatives assisting.  And I’m sure that’s not the only time a relative had to assist during the weekend (or at any other time of the year)!

Meet Shawna Faith and her mother!

 And here are all the neighbors (along with two of Pasca's three sons) who were so excited about the new baby, they stayed inside with us the whole time we talked.

Thanks, Jesus, for this LIFE story.