Children and the Snakes That Will Bite Them

I had a lot of reasons to smile in this picture.  (I’m the one with a light complexion).  But, the center of my joy was because the children I’m was with were near the Carolyn Kempton Memorial Hospital, where all kinds of snake bites can be treated.

And, there are deadly snakes in Africa: both kinds.

One of the most deadly snakes in this part of the world is a a puffer adder (as seen in the picture).  There are also various members of the mamba family.

Dr. Russ Ebersole recently wrote about a snake bite they treated in Togo:

“. . . A man arrived [at the hospital] at noon, having been bitten on the scalp by a puffer adder while taking a nap.   With a couple of hours his scalp and face became severely swollen, and his appearance looked almost non-human.  By early evening, he had trouble talking and breathing, and urgent plans were made to place a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe since his airway was swelling shut. . . Throughout the night his blood pressure was almost nonexistent, and he required strong medications just to keep his vital signs compatible with being alive . . . He then slowly improved and 5 days after his admission was able to be discharged.

But, there is a “snake bite” which is far more deadly than that of a black mamba or a puffer adder.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Carolyn Kempton hospital treats that kind of snake bite too.  Over 40 churches have been planted through the ministries of that hospital.

The situation in northern Togo is far different.  If the children in the picture above lived inside the 10/40 window in Mango, they would have little or no hope of being treated for either a physical or a spiritual snake bite.