Taken for Granted (Intern Insights)
It’s another sunrise, another new day as you wake up and prepare to go about that morning’s agenda. But something is wrong. Those birds chirping outside your window are just a little too loud. You cover your ears and eyes because of the small, inconsiderate creatures and the glaring rays of light peeking through the blinds. What’s worse, you feel like your throat somehow morphed in to sand paper overnight. The annoying realization doesn’t take long to sink in… you’re sick.
We’ve all experienced this at one point or another. So what’s the logical next step in order to expel the virus from our system? We take a trip to the doctor, of course. They prescribe some antibiotics, we drive to the pharmacy to pick them up, and then we go about the coming days as best we can while the sickness slowly but surely leaves our body. It’s an all too common routine in the United States that many take for granted. But as today’s prayer request reminds us, this convenient availability of vaccines and antibiotics is almost nonexistent in West African countries.
In the Ivory Coast, especially, the health care problem is so dire that an estimated 87,000 children under the age of five die every year from preventable diseases and other conditions. The World Health Organization recommends as a minimum standard that one physician be provided for every 5,000 inhabitants of a geographic area. Most West African nations fall dramatically short of that established criterion with many averaging less than ten qualified doctors per every 100,000 inhabitants. Because of this insufficient health care, Africa accounts for over 40% of the world’s communicable diseases, and this massive continent comprises less than five percent of the global health workforce.
Would you pray with me today that God would provide an abundance of doctors, physicians, and nurses in Africa? It may seem like a huge prayer request to blanket over such a large geographic area. But remember that we serve the Great Physician. Not only can He equip more people with the knowledge to provide proper health care, but He can heal those in the region who truly have no means of receiving the medicine or treatment they so desperately need. Most importantly, though, pray that along with physical healing, West Africans would also come to terms with their need for spiritual healing from our Lord and Savior.
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14 (ESV)