A church leader has overcome a life-changing injury, from a honey-harvesting accident, after a MAF team brought hope to his isolated community.
Harvesting honey is a high risk, high reward business that used to sustain Pastor Elisama Edward, a Rural Dean from The Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Maridi Diocese.
When an accident two years ago left him with a life-changing injury, the pastor had no hope of healing - until everything changed during a MAF Peace and Reconciliation workshop in August.
Pastor Elisama had been harvesting the honey that would help feed his family and pay their school fees, when he felt a branch begin to give way beneath him. Grasping for an upper branch which was too weak to bear his weight, he fell to the forest floor.
By the time he regained consciousness, it was 7pm. Pastor Elisama was deep in the forest and many miles from home. He set off in the dark injured and on foot – arriving around 2am.
The next day, he braved the excruciating pain to get care for his badly broken arm. The community advised him to seek help from a local healer. When their treatment failed, he tried another and even travelled to visit a healer in another town.
Believing the cost of surgery to be out of reach, he gave up on the hope of treatment. He resigned himself to a life with impaired mobility in his arm.
The training was God’s plan for my recovery! Even when I didn’t know, I had God’s peace that he would find a way
New hope arrived when the MAF plane landed in Maridi with a Peace and Reconciliation team.
Pastor Elisama was among more than 100 pastors who had travelled from surrounding villages to learn about reconciling communities through the Bible-based Healing Hearts, Transforming Nations workshop - and receive healing themselves.
‘I benefitted the most from the training because I received healing twice - not only did I receive spiritual healing from the MAF training, but I got physical healing too!’ the pastor says.
Maridi-born Workshop Facilitator and Dispatch Team Leader Thomas Titus offered an invitation to those in need of help.
‘A lot is happening through the training. As people reflect on what is taught, it is hard sometimes for people to express themselves. We invited people to approach us with personal problems after the workshop finished for the day if they needed to,’ Titus explains.
‘Pastor Elisama approached me on the second day. When I asked what happened, he rolled up his sleeve to show me his arm. The arm was so badly broken it looked like the pastor had an extra joint between his shoulder and elbow.
‘I introduced him to the other facilitator, we prayed for him, and it was decided that we would bring the Pastor to Juba after the workshop concluded.’
It was the first time Pastor Elisama had ever flown in a plane. Titus says the pastor was happy to be saved the cost and discomfort of a two-day journey to reach the capital by road.
‘In Juba, we took him for an x-ray which confirmed that the bone was not only broken but completely separated. It was clear he would need surgery,’ Titus explains.
Visiting orthopaedic surgeon Sirus Karoom, took a look at the x-ray. He had been meeting with doctors in Juba and recommended a capable colleague willing to take on the case.
A week later, Pastor Elisama went under the knife in Juba Teaching hospital to realign the bones and secure them with a plate and screws. The experienced surgeon did an excellent job straightening the misaligned arm.
With his arm supported by a sling, Pastor Elisama is now on the road to recovery.
When he regains strength back in his arm, the pastor will be able to cycle between the five parishes and 3,000 people under his care as a rural dean. He will tend to his garden, look after his family, although he won’t be harvesting honey anymore.
He will have to find a new way to make an income – but encouraged by his recent testimony of healing, Elisama believes God will provide.
Like the story of Abraham and Isaac, Pastor Elisama believes the injury and healing was a test of his faith. He had to believe God for his healing and trust him to make a way.
Elisama is happy that God used MAF to help bring about his healing.
‘The training was God’s plan for my recovery! Even when I didn’t know, I had God’s peace that he would find a way,’ he adds.
‘May God bless MAF – we don’t know how we can repay you for what you have done.’
When Pastor Elisama rolled up his sleeve to show me his arm - it was so badly broken it looked like the pastor had an extra joint between his shoulder and elbow.
