Esther Eye

Oct. 13, 2014

This is Esther.  She is one of our neighbors and a good friend of our children.  Esther is about 13 years old and has a quiet, sweet nature with a great smile.  The other day we noticed something was wrong with her eye.  It is clouded over, painful, and sensitive to light.  She said it was injured when grass got in it.  It took awhile to get the whole story but from what we gathered she got a piece of grass in it two years ago (!) and the problem comes and goes.  We all prayed for her and asked God to heal her eye.  We also gave her sunglasses which she wears everywhere to protect her eye. 

Grace was crying that night for her friend Esther.  It was on all of our hearts.  We love Esther and did not want to see her loose her sight.  We all prayed some more and knew we wanted to at least try to help her. 

Today Esther, her dad, our neighbor (to translate), Grace, Malai and I went to the hospital.  After waiting an hour and a half we saw a doctor who felt it was cataracts and told us to go to the eye doctor.  We went to the clinic where he was suppose to be but they said he was at the main hospital so we went there.  Thankfully the doctor got us in right away.  The nurse had Esther read the letter board to check her vision.  It was so sad to see her unable to see out of the injured eye.  She could only see when the nurse was waving her hand one foot away from her.  The good thing is her good eye saw very well.  When she saw the doctor she could not see his hand or light at all.  He said she is blind in that eye from an infection that was not treated.  Actually, after asking the father it was treated with bush medicine which the doctor told him is like poison and may have caused the blindness.  I wanted to cry.  I confirmed over and over that nothing could be done.  Asked why she had pain and the light hurt it.  He gave her some medicine for the eye and told us to come back after one month to see if there is any nerves left (or something like that?). 

Oh sweet Esther was now wiping away tears.  I gave her a hug and tears welded up in my eyes.  How do you feel when you just find out you are blind in one eye and will never see again?  It seems grieving here isn’t acceptable.  They will say don’t cry.  Where are the hugs and I am sorry?  As I hugged Esther I reminded her that she still had one eye that saw very well, that God could still heal her eye, and that she was still good and God loved her.  I wish I could fix it for her but I can’t.  I know God will use this too. 

So pray for Esther with us.  Pray that God does a miracle and gives her sight again (faith!).  Pray for God to give Esther peace and courage knowing she is blind in one eye.  Pray also for her father to come to know Christ.  Her mother goes to church but her father doesn’t.  Hearing that bush medicine was used on her eye is always so discouraging and a reminder of the stronghold satan has on people.  May David (father) see Jesus love and power through this and give his life to Him.