balloon soccer & tangible hope

Over the past few months he has been getting stronger and stronger. His little crutches have become one with him. His once unstable gait has vanished and has been replaced with a near run as he cruises around on his one leg and two supporting crutches as if he had perfectly healthy legs and no crutches at all. He has been working very hard with our physical therapy team. He has come so far. It seems like just yesterday that he woke up from his first surgery and “asked for a balloon.” The days when we had to give him multiple medications to deal with the pain from his exercises are long gone. And it seems like it was years ago that we were using tough love to force him to lie on his stomach to stretch the stump that was left of his leg; knowing if we didn’t make him stretch he would never be able to wear a prosthetic leg in the future. I am so proud of him!

A few weeks ago our little patient, that I am so proud of, our plastic surgeon and physical therapists took a small road trip across town to a soccer field. The exciting part of the road trip was not that the trip destination was a soccer field because soccer fields in Freetown are just like Starbucks in Seattle! No, the awesome part of the field trip was who was playing on the soccer field itself. Our little friend got to see the Sierra Leone National Amputee Foottball/Soccer Team play! Our small patient and my co-workers watched the professional soccer players with wonder and awe. The athletic army with crutches played a better game of soccer than most of us with two perfectly formed legs could ever hope to play. I can only imagine what my little friend/patient was thinking as he watched a soccer team of amputees, people just like him doing what all little African boys love; playing soccer.

Although his road hasn’t been easy and the only soccer game he has played lately was a game of balloon soccer with our physical therapy team, I trust my patient’s future is bright. He has been fit with a prosthetic leg and just three days ago he was discharged from Mercy Ships’ care. I know the world around him will tell him what he “cannot do”, that he “will fail”, and “that he is different and can never fit in.” But, I believe it won’t be long until my little patient leaves behind games of balloon soccer for more. I saw it in his eyes as he gave me a high-five good-bye and was ushered off the ship after receiving a round of applause and roar of encouragement when he was paraded through the dining hall during lunch to wave good-bye to the rest of the crew. He will remember the days he spent with us, the days he saw his healing come, and the day we showed him hope for his future on a simple soccer field; a field of dreams.

“In order for hope to be credible for the future it must be tangible in the present” (US Ambassador Robert Seiple). Thanks Lord for your Hope & for Healing.