“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”
2 Corinthians 2:3-5
This particular morning I woke up earlier than normal. Stubbornly I laid there, not wanting to get up, the restroom could wait. I tossed and turned for about 20 minutes. Then realizing that God wasn’t going to allow me to sleep any longer, I rolled off my sleeping pad onto the cold cement floor. Little by little I pulled myself off the floor, grabbed the restroom keys and headed out the door.
Walking out I was stunned to see me teammate Casondra sitting on the floor with an aboriginal women talking. I didn’t know if I was suppose to go over there with her or not. I decided to head to the restroom first before checking in on her otherwise trouble would happen. While in the restroom God assured me that I was suppose to go over there and pray for this lady.
Walking over to Casondra and this woman I could feel that she was in a lot of pain. Patrica was her name and being in pain was true, but it was more than meets the eye. While sitting there with Patrica we were able to hear a great deal of her life and what struggles she was feeling on this day, the day of her birthday. Over and over again she kept apologizing about being hung over. Throughout this ministry a huge majority of the people are in this condition. We didn’t care the state she was in we only wanted to know what was troubling her. She shared with us that it was her birthday that morning and she wanted to kill herself. The night before she was beaten and abused by some guys in the community and was feeling depressed. Shooting out her arm she showed us the cuts she had continuously inflicted on herself. She shared that she loved her children and that all she wanted to do was to walk into town that morning and get a drink. Through the alcohol already in her body there was a lot repeatedly shared and a lot of words being slurred or not even making sense. However, we did not even care. all we wanted to do was love on her.
We were able to pray for Patricia and also encourage her in many ways. She promised to stop by later to talk and see us again. Sadly she didn’t end up stopping by, but we were able to give her a candy bar treat for her birthday that morning. She truly appreciated it and walked away saying that she loved us and was going to bring pizza later.
A lot of the woman in this community has many struggles like Patrica. I am thankful that God placed her in front of that church that morning and that He woke me up. You never know when a person needs a pouring into, but God does. Showing who Jesus Christ is has come to be comforting people in ways beyond our understanding.
even though that meant I could get off this concrete floor called a bed. wanting to get off
