This past week in Busia has been jam packed full of ministry goodness and difficulties, great uncomfortableness and greater understanding. Here's the thing, you'll never quite understand how awkward it feels to try to and meet someone, get know them, and share the gospel with them through an interpreter until you are thrown right into the situation, but I'm here to tell you the first time you ever attempt it, it will feel weird. I'm also here to tell you that through it I got to see the Lord move in a way that I have never before, and I got to experience Him close a gap that I felt so tangibly in that moment. He created so many bonds between me and the people I got meet this last week through door to door evangelism here in Busia, and gave me such a new insight into this culture and these people's lives. This last week we went out tuesday-thursday every morning with some of the high schooler's from the church to go door to door sharing the message of Christ and praying for anyone who would let us come in, which was just about everyone we came across. Seriously, you couldn't imagine this in the states, but here as we would walk around, greeting people, and telling them what we were doing they would literally just invite us in to sit and share with them for an hour or so. And often the members of the church we were with, after doing introductions, would get right to the point by asking them, "Are you born again?". The first couple times it took me completely off guard, because all I could think about was, if we approached people like this back home, we'd never get into a single conversation. But it's just not that way here. The people wanted to know what we were talking about and if they did already know they were encouraged and challenged by the fact that we were going out and sharing with others. At the end of the week we were reflecting as a group about it all, talking about how awkward it felt at first and how we were pretty much comfortable with it now, and sharing stories about all the people we met… and we realized that we had gotten to be a part of 14 people coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!! How stinkin' amazing is that?
In the evenings we also got to go to the district hospital to pray for all the sick there. I cannot accurately describe to you the emotions that hit me as I walked into the children's ward on tuesday night. As we walk around the streets of Busia we are greeted every day by tons an tons of smiling kids who think we are the most unique things ever because we have white skin. They come running up to us asking us "How are you?!" (mostly because for the younger ones its the only english they really know yet) and all of them want to hold your hand. The other day some of my team mates and I went on a run and we even had a few of them join us for the second half of it; literally they saw us running past their house and they would just come running out and then keep running with us. Walking into that ward was the complete opposite experience. I was met by children who had seemingly had all the joy sucked out them, they wouldn't even look up as we came by their bedsides and tried to talk to them. Each of them had a different story and illness, some had been there for weeks because of malaria others had been there for days because of undiagnosed diseases that were causing their whole bodies to swell so much their skin couldn't stretch enough, and still others had just arrived because of heart problems or convulsions that had suddenly overtaken them. And I know all of this could make it sound like this room was chaotic, but the silence of all these children was what really stood out. As I walked up to the first little girl we were to pray over, I lost it. I started crying and couldn't get a word out with out tears streaming harder and harder. Yet, we were there to bring hope; we were there to bring love and life to these people and I quickly realized my own uselessness in that effort, as I in of myself had nothing to offer them in regards to strength or courage. But then we started talking to the mothers and we started to speak about Christ and pray through His name on behalf of these kids and even though nothing physical changed in that place… something changed. We didn't see any miraculous healings that night, or even the next day really, but the next night when we showed up the first thing we saw was Dennis, one of the boys we prayed over, running over to us, giggling and runnings away. And then I saw one of the moms of a kid I had prayed over and she greeted me with a smile, and said she had so much peace,that nothing had really changed about her little boys condition, but she had a super natural peace about everything and thanked me so much for praying for her and him. Life had sprung up in a pretty dead place.
That next night when we went back we also went to the women's ward to pray for all of them. My teammate Emily and I were paired with Simon, a local here who isn't a part of the church but is a believer who is friends with some of the youth from the church. The first lady we met had come from out of town and by the sound of her condition she had become extremely dehydrated before her arrival the day before. As she told us about everything she began to praise the Lord explaining to us that just 24 hours ago she could hardly move or function, couldn't eat anything or even talk and now she was sitting up, talking freely, and had gotten to eat. She was so excited to tell us about everything and to have us pray with her and said she was so encouraged to see us at the hospital. One of the next ladies we came to was Angeline. She came from a town about 60 kilometers away and was having a lot of difficulties breathing. She showed us a scan of her chest and, I have no clue what it meant, but on one side you could see what appeared to be a clear lung and something on the other one that was just dark and full of stuff. Through Simon interpreting for us we found out that she had just received medicine for whatever was going on, but didn't know how long she would be at the hospital. We told her we would like to pray for her healing and Simon told us that she said she would appreciate that, that she didn't know much about God or have a belief in Him but that she thought that maybe He would heal her if we prayed for her. Simon told us after explaining that, that she came from an area that believed in a lot of different things and was really cultish in their ways. He then said we could just pray for her though since she was okay with that. But something didn't feel quite right about that. The Lord reminded me in that moment about the healings that Jesus did while He was here and about how in every instance He said they were healed by their faith. I didn't feel comfortable moving forward with prayer when she literally didn't have any idea of who we were praying to. I felt like she needed to have the opportunity to not just let these strangers pray to some foreign God on her behalf, but to know Him and come to Him in faith herself. So I told Simon that I would really like to explain the gospel to her and he said okay and began to interpret for me. It was so incredible to see again the Lord completely fill the distance that could have been there because of our difference in languages. Angeline would watch me speak in english with such interest and as soon as I'd finish her head would snap to Simon, like she was so ready to hear what I had just said. At the end of me sharing the gospel with her she began to speak to Simon and he explained to us that she was saying that she wanted to believe, but that she was afraid because if she were to accept this message and then go home, she would for one not have any community of believers there and two actually have her whole community against her once they found out. I was stunned as the reality of that sunk in a bit for me, and I felt the weight of the decision she had before her. We spoke to her about the Lord's protection though, and explained to her that He does not leave you alone when you invite Him into your life, but sends His Spirit to reside with you and shared with her stories of the Lord's protection for His people in the face of great persecution and I read her one of my favorite passages of scripture in John 17 where Jesus prays for his disciples and all believers. Afterwards I looked up and just saw her head nodding and Simon told us that she wanted to pray to receive Christ in her life and for us to pray for her health and protection as she goes home. It was such an incredible and humbling moment to be a part of. Before leaving her we asked if she had a Bible, assuming she probably didn't, which was true, so the next day in the morning we went and bought her one in swahili and brought it to the hospital for her. It was actually another incredible moment, because we got there just a few hours before she was scheduled to head back home with her daughter and got to talk to her daughter about what we were giving her mom and how they should read it with each other everyday. We book marked the gospels and some stories we believe will be of encouragement to them, and they told us they would read all of it. I'm believing the Lord that the work He's begun in her heart, He'll bring to completion even though we may never get to speak with her again.
It was such a good week. But I'll be honest that in the midst of it, it didn't always seem that way. My team and I struggled after that night in the kids ward. We struggled with gravity of sadness and pain that going on there and believing that the Lord has good plans for them even though we weren't seeing any miraculous healing going on. As we talked through all that stuff one night, I listened as my team members shared the expectations they had coming into the race of seeing the Lord move in these supernatural ways that we don't normally see. I'll be honest I had and still do have those expectations too, but as they were talking it all out we started to realize that those expectations were beginning be something that was being sought more than just Christ himself. As those things weren't happening, and doubts in ourselves, in the amount of faith we had and doubts of the Lord's willingness to move in that way were all the sudden springing up. The Lord spoke something really powerful that night though. He reminded me of something one of our leaders at launch spoke to us. He challenged us one night by asking us what the greatest miracle Jesus performed was. many people spoke up, hollering out all the different ones that He did during His life here. At the end though our leader said that those miracles were great indeed, but at the end of it all, all the people Jesus healed and brought back to life eventually died.. so those probably weren't the reason He came or the greatest of things He did; he said that the greatest thing Jesus did was giving us Himself and through that restoring us to complete wholeness. the other miracles, they were just the ripples that followed as He brought us back into the presence of God.
