The Women Danced!

VVF is upon us! This is the time I have been waiting for. Since I cared for VVF women in Liberia three years ago, my heart has belonged to these women. What is VVF? VVF stand for vesico-vaginal fistula. Basically, it's a hole which is formed between the bladder and vagina which causes a women to constantly leak urine. The most common way this occurs is during prolonged childbirth.

Picture this: You are a woman in a remote village and you are pregnant. As you start going into labor, the other women around you come to help. If there is a problem, what do you do? What can you do? The nearest hospital is at least a days walk and since you have been laboring for at least a day already, it is too late to start that journey. You labor another day. And another. And possibly a third or a fourth before the baby passes, stillborn. You grieve for the loss of your child as you start to notice you are unable to control your urine. It runs down your legs without any control. Pads can't stop it. Medicine can't stop it. Because the baby was stuck for so long, and it pushed so hard on parts of the vagina that it killed the tissue there and caused this hole into the bladder or into the ureters or maybe even into the rectum so you are leaking stool as well. Nothing can stop this. You constantly smell. Flies swarm. You can no longer stay in the house because of this. Your family disowns you. Your husband leaves you. You have lost your baby. You are on your own. What hope do you have for a future?

Last monday was screening day for VVF. 66 women showed up. 60 were able to get surgical slots. That is an amazing number! Tuesday was the first day of surgery and today was the first dress ceremony. After a women has her surgery and she is dry, as we call it, she is given a new dress to go home in. Makeup is put on her face. Her nails done. A head wrap on her head to match her beautiful new dress, and we dance. Five women danced today. Five women who were wet but are now dry danced today. One was leaking for a year. Another for ten years. Another for thirteen years. They had all been left by their husbands. Ostracized by their communities. One of the women I saw smile for the first time today in a week. Hope is being restored. Lives are changed in ways I could never understand.

These women remind me of the passages in Luke 8:42-48:

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

"Who touched me?" Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."

But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

These women ache to touch the edge of Jesus' cloak. To be healed. Not only did Jesus heal her physically, he healed her body and soul. We have a wonderful surgeon here right now to help heal their bodies. Pray for this healing, but also pray that these women can start to experience emotional healing as well. To not harbor bitterness or anger, but to forgive and be able to go on living their lives in joy.

Five women danced today. They danced. They danced. They danced!