Bold (surgical) Armor for God

Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against all evil schemes.
Ephesians 6: 10-11

Recently encompassing this verse, sparked an image in my mind — surgical warriors with surgical armor. Just as a warrior in battle places on his shield of armor, so we too, in the surgical field, place on our own shield of surgical armor.

For every patient that comes into our surgery room in Tanzania, Hope Ministries completes a series of surgical prep in order to ensure our patients have the safest, most sterile procedure possible. We begin with clean surgical preparation of the tools, surgical bed, and surgical room. After a clean and thorough procedure from the help of many others, we begin the surgical prep of ourselves. Just as God desires us to have a shield of Faith, our surgeons don the cleanest gloves, gowns and masks, in order to ensure our own safety along with our patients’. Right before surgery, the patient’s limb is cleaned, scrubbed and dried before we even take one step. We complete a “time out” before we even begin our procedure, in order to ensure we have the right patient, limb and procedure taking place. This pause gives us the ability to go forward with our feet and surgical abilities and complete the gospel of peace that He aches for us to have. 

Just as these procedures above help us become even stronger men and women of armor, these processes also help our patients become the strongest warrior that God aches for them to be. Supporting the injured and the weak in Africa counts and clothing them in the full armor of God matters.