Self harm.

I have a shirt that reads; "To write Love on Her Arms". It's meant to promote love and not self harm. Self cutting is a major problem here as well as in Canada. I can't tell you how many times I've had to dress a fresh laceration or dry the tears of a Daughter who wants to kill herself. My whole self aches to aid, to heal, to prevent, to educate, but mostly to point them to the direction of the ultimate healer; Our Lord.

Today I decided to go early to the clinic. Not sure why but felt like I had made a decision to leave earlier really without even making it!! Weird. Anyways, I get to work and without going straight to the clinic and unpacking my books and such, i went upstairs to say hello to the reasons i work where I work; to the Daughter's!!

I occasionally do this just to announce my presence and let them all know that if they need me that i would be in the clinic. Anyways, I walk in to the sewing room and immediately walk towards a new girl. I look down and to my horror I see an AWFUL, gaping laceration to her forearm. It was the worst self harm wound I have ever seen. Her subcutaneous tissue was spewing out and the cut was dangerously close to her brachial artery! I gasped. She was embarrassed and I realized i had to contain my surprise a little better!! I excused her from working and took her to my clinic. I grabbed my lovely Chantrea, our translator and had to take her into my little water closet (aka toilet) b/c the power had gone out and my WC is the only room in my clinic with a window. So we huddled around the toilet and I assessed the situation. She was holding back tears of fear and tears of brokenness.

I dressed and cleaned the wound and quickly wrote her a referrel form for CSI clinic here in P.P. Before sending her off I prayed for her. That our Love and the Love of the Lord would be obvious to her. And that her angels would protect her from any future harm. I also told her that she was not in trouble and that we were not sending her away b/c we were unhappy with her. But b/c we loved her and cared for her.

She's been working at Daughter's for 5 days! Thank God that she was guided to work here so that we could help her! Another thing that i am thankful for is that she kept her shirt sleeve up so that she did not have it hidden from my eye sight. Her other sleeve was covering her arm and that arm had no lacerations on it!

I wish to remain faithful and follow the guidance that dwells deep down in my soul. So that I will not miss any opportunities to aid in the healing and care of any of His beloved children!