Agatha

Today we had our first full 8 hour day of clinics in Enzinlibo village. It was exhausting to say the least. We had a lot of “win” moments and some moments of confession amongst the African heat, along with a few small variables. Even thinking through all of those “tough” moments, all I can look back and say is God is so good. We were able to see over 215 patients today despite only having three doctors on this trip! Praise God! The Gospel was shared with all of those patients and not one of them walked out of there not knowing that Jesus loves them. Although many of our patients were Christians from many denomination churches, I saw a constant theme amongst them. The majority of these Christians in this area had the belief that the way to earn salvation and to get to heaven is by the things that they do. Many answered this way when I asked them “how do you believe that you will get to heaven?”; “it is the way you worship him”, “it is how you are as a person”, “it is how often you read the Bible and pray”. They believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and that they died for their sins, but they missed the Gospel part of it. They missed the part that their sin is forgiven. That they don’t have to do anything but love Jesus with all of their heart and He will start to transform the way they talk, act and think. Those answers that they gave are not wrong, but those things should come out of our love for Jesus. Just like the way a man buys flowers for his wife out of love, we do those things that they suggested out of love for Jesus.

Out of all of the patients today one particularly stood out to me, Agatha. I saw Agatha walking into the clinic and it was hard not to see her and realize that she was different than the others. I’m not sure of the exact condition but she had some kind of jaw deformity that made the left side of her mouth stick out two to three inches more than the right side. If I’m being completely honest, I was really hoping that some other group would have checked her in and did her vitals for the doctors to look at. Not because I was afraid of staring. Not even because I was worried that I would have trouble understanding her. I was hoping that she would have gone to another table because I didn’t know if I could love on her and relate to her as well as I could with the other patients. I am a young man going to school for youth ministry and here I was having those thoughts coming to a foreign people group to love and serve them. I hope you sense my frustration. After checking in Agatha and getting her health information it was time to talk about the Gospel. One of my fellow volunteers started asking her some questions about where she stands in her faith (if at all). When asked if she attends church, she started weeping. She expressed to us that she was too embarrassed to step into a church. I hope you feel my embarrassment of the thoughts I had of her earlier. Agatha, a child of God did not feel that she was good enough to step foot in His house. She did not think she was worthy of being loved. Friends, I hope you feel my heart break. As I tried to speak to her without my sweat turning into tears I kept reminding her that she is a princess of the King and she is so much more loved than she gives herself credit for. We had local Pastors nearby that were readily willing to invite her and make sure she felt welcomed to attend their church from there on out.

I am not sure who is reading this back in the states, but I want you to know that you are a son/daughter of the King. You are loved so much more than you give yourself credit for.