As a kid, I heard Bible stories about lepers and Jesus healing them. I knew it was a disease, but what I did not know is how real this disease still is in today’s world. Of course, we do not see it in the United States, but I have had the privilege of visiting two leprosy colonies in the last two months…one in India and one in Nepal.
I use the word privilege, and I absolutely mean it. When first finding out we would visit them, I was excited because it was something new I didn’t even know existed anymore, but once I got to the first one and even to the second one, my heart absolutely broke.
On our first visit in India, it was the first time the poverty, the disease, the struggles of the world truly hit me. As I was praying for a man sitting there with missing fingers and toes and horribly diseased skin he was wrapping with gauze, I struggled to even get my words out because of tears. I was sitting there praying for healing, praying the Lord would take him out of the discomfort and pain he lives with every single day. We went from house to house seeing more and more of this, but one thing we also kept seeing was the happiness and joy flowing out of these people.
Fast forward to Nepal where we hiked 30 minutes down to a leprosy colony, where we also had the opportunity to sit and talk with the people, to pray for them and just love them. These people are abandoned by families, friends, and everyone around them, but the joy of the Lord is so evident in their lives.
All of these people bring the scripture of “suffering with joy” to present day real life, and we could all learn something from them. I know I have, and I hope the joy from the Lord is as evident in my life as it is in all of theirs.
