Clemencia Puwanchin

Clemencia Puwanchin left the hospital today. She was a 32 year old woman I met on a malaria caravan to the jungle over two months ago. She had been sick for one year and four months; bed bound for the last eight months. She was totally blind - she could see light and dark, but not shapes or human forms in front of the light.

We brought her in with the team that went to the jungle. she had to be helped to walk to the airstrip in the middle of town. Her belly was huge, like a woman pregnant for a year and a half might look. Her community had given her up for dead, but not her husband.

We had no idea what was wrong with Clemencia until we got her to the hospital in Shell. It turned out she had diabetes. For the lack of $1 per day in medicine, she lost her sight and almost died.

We treated Clemencia's diabetes, and she started gaining weight and getting energy, but she still was blind. Our ophthalmologist came from Quito, and he operated on one cataract, and a two days later, she could see. We had to keep Clemencia and her husband at our hospital for two more weeks because her diabetes put her at risk fo infection to the eye, which would have cost her newly gained sight.

Clemencia and Jose went home for two weeks, so she could see the faces of her children, which she hadn't seen in over a year. She just came back, had surgery on her other eye, and now she has the binocular vision we almost all take for granted. She has gained weight, is doing the things she used to do, and is about the happiest patient I have seen for years.

In the Bible, the book of John, chapter 9, God tells a great story:
1As he [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ..."

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam". So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

The miracle that Jesus did more than any other in the Bible was to give eyesight to the blind. It's a metaphor for how we are blind to the things that really matter in life, like God, as we chase the brass rings of physical beauty, new cars, new clothes, and all the other idols we think we can't live without. Clemencia saw all that the modern world has to offer; TV, SUVs and the latest fashions, but none of that compared to seeing her own children's faces.

It's really a privilege to have a bit role in a miracle. Here in Shell we get that privilege often. Have you thought how great it is to have two eyes? Have you thanked God for that gift? We thank God for you.

Blessings,
Jerry