Crocodile attack!

The great chief’s son was nearly killed by a crocodile just a few days ago.

Fifteen-year-old Moses and two friends were crossing a river when he was abruptly and viciously attacked by a crocodile, Nadia Hattingh writes. After the initial attack he managed to get away briefly.

But then, as he and his friends tried to scramble up the steep river bank to escape, the crocodile caught his leg and dragged him back into the water.

By the grace of God, a neighbor heard the screams and came running with a spear.  He stabbed the crocodile several times before he finally released the boy.

Most of Moses’ leg was missing with his foot barely attached. He was bleeding profusely.

The chief and 20 men arrived at Nadia’s house with the boy on a stretcher.

Nadia’s husband, Francois, was not there and the crisis demanded immediate action.

Nadia tried her best to stop the bleeding. While she worked at this, Waldo and Franco, her sons, helpfully prepared the vehicle by filling the tires and putting the back seat down so that Moses could lie down.

Soon they were on their way with Moses’ uncle and two other family members riding along.

The terribly bumpy road certainly didn’t help the trauma of the situation. The heavy rains had made the roads even worse than usual and sometimes their progress was made at a crawling pace.

But finally they arrived.

“Have you ever been in a hospital in a third world country?” Nadia asks. “I will spare you the details, but sufficient to say that Moses’ suffering did not stop when he arrived there.” 

As it turned out, there was no doctor present, but a technico (someone between a doctor and a nurse) cleaned Moses’ wounds. There was no pain-killer beyond Tylenol.

“I stayed with Moses, holding his hand while they cleaned the wounds and cut the dangling foot from his leg,” Nadia writes. “He was in much pain …”

There were no blankets or pillows for his comfort beyond the things that Nadia had brought from home.

The big challenge was getting the ambulance to come from the nearest town. The distance takes three to four hours to drive. And the ambulance contacts reported that there was no fuel.

Nadia stayed until Moses, who was delirious with pain, was finally given something to help him sleep.

When he was calmed, she left alone on the long drive back home. Nadia prayed all the way for Moses and his family.

“I felt a very real presence of God … and despite the dreadfulness of what had happened, I felt calm and at peace,” she shares.

Nadia finally heard that Moses had been transported. She had managed to get in touch with an influential man who had just had dinner at their house the week before and she was thankful to find out that he had been able to arrange the delivery of diesel for the ambulance trip to a bigger, better-equipped hospital.

She has been unable to talk to anyone for several days about Moses’ current condition. “I do not have direct contact and will have to wait for news to filter through the usual ‘bush telegraph.’ This is hard for me, but I know that the One Who loves Moses most is right there with him to comfort and protect him.”

Nadia suspects that Moses will need to be transferred yet another time to an even larger, better-equipped hospital in the capital city.

“Please pray with us that Moses will survive …. He needs our prayers! He has a long road of recuperation ahead and … his life is still in danger,” she writes.

“My prayer is that this incident with the crocodile will be turned from a horrible experience into something that prepares the hearts of the Mwinika people for the Word of Truth.”

Please stop right now and pray for Moses and his family. Pray that God will comfort them and will provide wisdom to medical people who are caring for him. Pray that he will live and that God will use his life powerfully.

Thank God for protecting and caring for Nadia and and ask God to use Francois and Nadia and their family as they love and minister to the Mwinika people.  Pray that, through this incident, God will bring the comfort and hope of the Gospel to people who desperately need His love.