Steves
After a fantastic dinner we followed Uncle Steve back to his house outside the city. Uncle Steve has lived in Angola as an opthamologist doing cataract surgeries all over the country for the last 30 years or so.
He is a 78 year old bachelor who watches old westerns, crime dramas and Three’s Company. He also does all his own cleaning, makes his own bread every day and lives without running water, filling up buckets for baths and dish washing.
Uncle Steve travels two weeks out of the month restoring sight to the blind. He told stories of how soldiers tried to drive him out of Lubango during the war, but he refused to leave and continued to travel into town, having to cross over dead bodies to get to work at the hospital. He is one hard-core Canadian.
The next day, we went to the CEML (Evangelical Medical Center of Lubango) where Uncle Steve works as well as another medical missionary, Dr. Steve Foster.
Dr. Steve, as he is called, had offered to put Teague’s leg in a walking cast, since the clinic in Huambo (6 hours away) did not have the resources or expertise to perform such a task. As we talked with Dr. Steve, he too told war stories of refusing to leave his patients at the hospital, even at gun point. The military tried to take over the CEML and Dr. Steve and Uncle Steve held their ground.
Again, I had to pause with amazement at the unbelievable hardship these men had volunteered to live through. Not only had they volunteered to provide healthcare to people in a country with little and sometimes no infrastructure, but they did it for years in the middle of a war zone--coming face to face with decisions of self-preservation or perseverance in the name of Jesus.
What may be even more amazing is the sheer and boundless joy that emanates from their presence. Both Steves were constantly telling jokes and silly stories. Both Steves showed me a glimpse of the heart of God.