Martin Salia's home-going

I just got a text from Jason stating that Martin Salia has died.

Why Lord??

He spent years and years in training to learn surgery.

He gave his entire life to helping those most in need in Sierre Leone.

Sierre Leone already severely lacks doctors and has now lost their sixth one from Ebola.

He loved you and was wholeheartedly serving you with his life.

Why not heal him and use him to help meet these critical needs and to share your love with others?

Why allow him to be taken from this world so soon?

I don’t understand. I know that God could have healed him. So why did He not?

Only the Lord knows. I don’t understand...but I trust Him. I trust that He has good and perfect reasons for everything He does and does not do. I trust that He loves Martin more than anyone else in the world ever could. I trust that Martin is now with His Savior – I imagine Jesus is walking with him and showing him around his new home in paradise.

Here is what was written in an email to us today by our good friend and the executive director of PAACS...

Dear Friends of PAACS

With great sadness, I must inform you of the home-going of our brother in Christ, Dr. Martin Salia.  A 2008 graduate of PAACS-Banso, he has continued to serve his people of Sierra Leone at great expense.  In humility and love, he has now paid the ultimate sacrifice. John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."   

Martin was a dedicated surgeon and loved his Lord and his countrymen.  Please keep his family and all his friends in your prayers and thoughts during this difficult time.  We were honored to know him and he will be deeply missed. 

Yours in sorrow,

Bruce C. Steffes, MD

Executive Director, PAACS

I am also reminded of the chorus to a song that my sister, Carissa Maupin wrote a few years ago...

Is it ok for me to ask why?

 Is it ok to just turn away and cry?

We weren’t given a choice of life without pain,

But a promise that You’ll stay with us,

Along the way.

God’s promise to us on this earth is not freedom from death, sickness, and pain (although this is His promise to us for the heaven that awaits!). His promise to us for this earth is that He will be with us. He will be all we need – every moment. For those who truly trust Him for the salvation of their soul – He enters into them by His Spirit and gives them all they need to live and die well. God gave Martin Salia the grace for every moment he lived. He also gave him the grace for the moment he drew his last breath here on earth.

I got another text from Jason this morning. This one told me about the death of a very small patient – a newborn baby girl – less than one week old. Jason took the boys and me around the hospital to meet some of his patients the other night and we met this beautiful baby and her mother. She was born with an omphalocele and seemed to be doing well Friday night. The nurses said that she turned blue and her heart started racing sometime Saturday and that she quickly died. We don’t know what happened – likely a cardiac event.

I am hurting for her sweet mother and the rest of the family. This baby girl didn’t even get a chance to live life here for more than a few days. I’m sure that today her mother is hurting physically from excess milk that should have been for her tiny daughter. I’m sure that her heart is hurting much more as she grieves this terrible loss – now the death of her fourth. She had three previous babies die in utero – one that she carried to full term.

Neither Martin Salia nor this baby girl died in vain. God sees them and knows them. He was holding them two days ago and He is still holding them now. He is holding Dr. Salia’s family, friends, co-workers, and patients, even as we pray for them to have the comfort and grace they need during this time. He is holding the mother and family of this precious baby girl as we also lift them up to Jesus in prayer.

Thank you Lord, for holding us all. Thank you that nothing is out of your control or reach. Thank you that even when we don’t understand – You are trustworthy and faithful.

After all of this news yesterday, I felt sad and discouraged. I wanted to run away from the daily grind and just rest a while. However, as I thought of the courage and strength of Dr. Salia – and so many like him – I got up and got busy. I cleaned, fed, and held my children close. I mended and folded clothes. I talked with my neighbor. I put my babies to bed – so grateful for their lives and for the gift and privilege of being here as a family – to live, love, and serve with each day we are given.

Here is a hymn that was mentioned by Kent Brantley at one of his speaking engagements, and passed onto us by the above mentioned Bruce Steffes. There is talk of it maybe becoming a theme / focus song for PAACS.

1 May the mind of Christ, my Savior, 
live in me from day to day, 
by his love and power controlling 
all I do and say. 


2 May the word of God dwell richly 
in my heart from hour to hour, 
so that all may see I triumph 
only through his power. 



3 May the peace of God, my Father, 
rule my life in everything, 
that I may be calm to comfort 
sick and sorrowing. 


4 May the love of Jesus fill me 
as the waters fill the sea. 
Him exalting, self abasing: 
this is victory. 



5 May we run the race before us, 
strong and brave to face the foe, 
looking only unto Jesus 
as we onward go.