Most if not all World Racers reach a kind of breaking point. July 2010 World Racer Stacey Hume got there in Malawi this month, where she met an eight year old girl with a hole in her throat and all Stacey had to offer her was prayer.
Cassie Schott is part of the October 2010 World Race; this month, which is the second of eleven, she’s in Candelaria, Nicaragua. Cassie and her teammates have been partnering with Rosa, one of the village’s go-to intercessors, praying for the sick. A woman whose 26 year old son was very ill asked Rosa to pray for him, so Rosa and the team went to their house.
The family members told us he had very low blood pressure, his kidneys were shutting down, and he was having a lot of pain in his chest, unable to take a deep breath. We really didn’t know what else to do other than pray that God would take away his pain and bring physical healing. So that’s what we did. And then we left.
Yet Allan, one of Cassie’s teammates, felt burdened for this young man so the team followed up and visited the family. He was taken to the hospital and his relatives didn’t know when he’d return.
A day later, the young man’s sister asked the team to come pray over him; he had returned and was still sick. Other relatives, friends and neighbors were present, caring and comforting this man, who was seated outside. Three of the team members approached him, knelt, laid their hands on him and prayed for two hours while others watched. They moved inside the house, where they continued praying for another four hours amidst his family.
And then it happened…all too quickly. We could tell by the moaning and the expression on his face that he was experiencing excruciating pain. And there we sat, at a loss for words.
All of a sudden, one of the women began wailing and as she stood up she started to faint and then came screaming and tears from everyone in the room. His heart stopped beating. There was no pulse. His eyes were rolling back in his head.
We had no idea what to do other than pray. And so we did. We laid hands on a dead man and prayed for him to get up.
We stayed there for over an hour after he died and prayed over him. We prayed some pretty intense, bold prayers having faith that God could bring him back to life if it was His will…
Read more from Cassie on her blog.
Then there’s Di Dinnis, who went on the World Race in January 2009 and is currently co-leading the September 2010 R Squad. She’s been in Cambodia, where, she says,
I’ve seen it a thousand times before: Beggars on the streets asking for money. They come in all forms here… Young, old, disabled, strung out.
They follow you, they cry for you; same desperation, same story. I’ve actually gotten to the point where it doesn’t even bother me anymore. Or so I thought.
Two boys, one of them holding a coughing infant girl, approach Di and ask her to buy milk for their sister. She writes,
I couldn’t let this baby go without food. Last month I was wrecked for the starving children in the Philippines and knew I could help this baby.
So Di followed them to the store to buy milk for the baby. When the boy selected powered milk, which is much more costly than fresh milk, her suspicion was aroused, but she bought two cans of it anyway. Soon after she made her purchase, they boys ran from the store, with infant and milk in tow.
Di saw the boys with the same baby on the street, sans milk.
I had heard stories about these “beggar pimps” that collect babies and use them get money for food… At that point I’m not sure which was greater – the anger that I felt because I had just gotten ripped off by a pimp, or the sadness that the baby didn’t get fed…
You can read the rest of her story here.
The secret’s out: even missionaries – especially missionaries – have moments when the questions outnumber the answers. Stacey and Cassie are on the Race for the first time. Di has been on the Race and is at it again. I finished the World Race over a year ago, and still don’t always know how to respond when confronted with brokenness here in the States; Jacob simply responded to my question with one of his own.
What are the answers? What do we do when we don’t feel comfortable with offering “Jesus” as the pat, Sunday school reply?
