Livingstone, Zambia.
A place where people from all over the world come to see the beautiful and famous Victoria Falls, a place where Hungry Lion is the McDonald’s of Zambia, a place where you see zebras and elephants… Yet a place where I felt closest and most at home with The Lord sitting on my knees of a dirty floor next to the bedside of a sick and sleeping woman, holding her hand and praying because my heart couldn’t do much more than that.
For a week, I got the privilege of working alongside two teams who’s ministry days looked like the morning spent at an elderly home and the afternoons spent doing soccer ministry with local children we picked up along the way on our thirty minute walk.
But this blog is specifically about a woman I met at the elderly home.
And funny thing is, I’m not the fondest or feel really gifted with the elderly (just being honest), yet I know The Lord has humor and lessons in placing me in that place a week – and I’m so thankful for it.
As you walk in this elderly home, the first part of the morning is spent serving breakfast and cleaning the area – then spending the majority of the time going around the elderly home talking with the men and women there. On the first day I met a woman who doesn’t speak English (so I have yet to know her name) but has this signature dance move that she would do each time she saw me. (I wish I could show you the dance move over this blog but maybe I can do it for you in person one day). And as I spent the first couple days with this woman, my favorite part of her was that she would talk and talk and talk to me (in her language), telling me stories of who knows what, and after ending her story, would look at me and we would just start to laugh because we both knew neither of us could understand each other. And very shortly after, I would tell her stories of Jesus in English and we would continue to laugh after… Oh, how Jesus knows how to bring joy even through language barriers – I believe Jesus was translating my stories to her.
On the Thursday of that week, we did our daily 7:40 am leave for our thirty-minute walk to the elderly home and my heart was so excited to see the woman’s signature dance move and hear her stories. As we finished cleaning and serving breakfast, I went to go search for the woman – but she wasn’t in her normal spot… And so I started asking God where she was – and He answered.
The joyful woman I had gotten to spend time with was in her room, laying on her bed sleeping, with just a piece of cloth barely able to cover her body up with at least a hundred flies covering her skin. Standing at the doorway of her room, I saw flies and all sorts of bugs swarming around her ankle specifically. I approached her bed and swatting the flies away, I saw why – the woman had gotten bit by something on her ankle and the flies were eating away at her open wound. I quickly looked around her room and found a smaller cloth on the corner of her bed and praying that the cloth was clean, I wrapped her ankle as best as I could to keep the flies away. As I was doing this, the woman opened her eyes and saw me. She looked at me and smiled, and barely able to lift her hands, she tried in her best way possible to do her signature dance move for me. My eyes filled with tears and I smiled at her, doing her dance move back with her. She quickly closed her eyes again, and before I knew it she was back asleep. And I stood there, looking at this woman, asking The Lord what I could do for this woman – knowing that the workers at this elderly home couldn’t do much for her either.
“Pray” Jesus said to me.
And in that moment, The Lord physically brought me to my knees next to the bedside of this woman… And despite how dirty and unclean this woman physically was, I was reminded of Jesus touching some of the most unclean people the world knew, and I reached for her small hands and held them and I started praying – praying for healing physically but also spiritually – praying that she knew Jesus. And still holding one of her hands, I reached for my bag behind me and grabbed my Bible and started reading all the miracles Jesus did in the book of Luke. I sat in this posture praying and reading Scripture, as each minute passed knowing that The Lord was very quickly breaking my heart for what breaks His, in the most beautiful way – And I think that The Lord, before The Race had broken my heart for certain things – but nothing like this.
I felt so helpless,
Feeling like there was nothing physically I could do for this woman… But The Lord continued to tell me to pray until my team and I had to leave the elderly home.
So that’s what I did, I prayed and prayed and prayed.
I prayed until I could hear the team getting ready to leave outside. And then I stood up, still holding this sick woman’s hand – trying to swat away all the flies and bugs that kept trying to cover her body but kept coming back to her body like a magnet. I got her cloth and tried to cover up more of her body, and still holding her hand, I said “You are loved, so loved”. I let go of her hand and walked out of the room – knowing that even though there’s only so much I can do… Jesus can and will do more than my earthly self can – and I felt peace in that walking away, and knowing that Jesus just changed the way I see certain things in life, and that included my prayer life.
I really don’t think I believed half the prayers I prayed before I left America – I think sometimes we downplay what our prayers to The Lord could actually do, even if we don’t want to admit that, we do – questioning that the God of this universe couldn’t do even the smallest of prayers. But the past 5 months, Jesus has really challenged me – asking me to actually fully believe the prayers that I pray; to pray with confidence and boldness in the things I ask, holding onto His promises that our Heavenly Father is a healer, friend, redeemer and life giver.
What a world this place could be if we actually believed the prayers we prayed – if we actually believed with our whole heart the character of God, and held onto the promises He makes to us…
What a world it could be.
It all starts with a prayer – and mine started on my knees on the dirty floor beside the bedside of a hurting woman who does one of my favorite signature dance moves of all times.
“100% of the prayers we don’t pray go unanswered” a quote I read one time… so simple, yet so very true.
I’m thankful for that woman, I’m thankful that I know The Lord will heal her in every way – I’m thankful that I am not people’s saviors, that only Jesus saves, and I am thankful that prayer is sometimes all we can do – but that it’s the best thing we could ever do for people.
[[Month 5 is coming to a close… And I am now almost halfway done with this crazy adventure… Plus I AM FULLY FUNDED!!!! Praise praise praise! Thank you guys!! I love you all xoxo – Merry (Late) Christmas!]]
