Ethiopia: Five Minutes

Five minutes can change a life. A month ago in March, 30 year-old Taye was walking, presumably to work as a daily laborer, early in the morning. While en route, Taye was stopped by a man who was constructing a new building and asked to help. "Just for five minutes," the man implored.

Taye acquiesced, unaware of some exposed electrical wiring, and began to pour water on a new cement wall per the man's request.

Now, a month later, I help the local nurses at Gimbie change the dressings to his electrical burns every day. We also change the dressings to his amputation sites where he lost both of his feet due to his injuries. His burn wounds are looking better every day, but his muscles are now so weakened from a month of lying in bed that he cannot move of his own will.

Currently, the owner of the new building where Taye had his accident is paying for his hospital stay, but I know that both Taye and his wife worry daily about how they are going to care for their two children when they leave the hospital. He is no longer able to work as a daily worker and has no education for another job. Right now, the outlook for his quality of life is grim.

The first day I saw Taye, he stopped me as I was leaving his room. He pointed skyward and lifted his eyes up. I gathered he wanted me to pray for him, so I did. It's hard to describe the dimly hopeful look I saw in his eyes when I finished praying. I left his room wondering what else I could do for this man who, in my eyes, seems to have so little left to hope and live for. I gave Taye a Bible in his native language hoping that he would read it, and that it would bring him some kind of peace, but it doesn't seem like that is enough. Yet each day since I first met him, Taye always asks me to pray with him before I leave his room, and each day it seems to me that I see an improvement in his countenance.

I still pray often that God will show me other ways to help Taye, but for now, I try to spend about five minutes each day visiting with his family and praying with them because I have to believe that five minutes can change a life.