Every Thursday, in the mornings, instead of going with our own teams to our regular ministries, our staff at the base orchestrate teachings. Then the entire squad is sent out with a mission: to live out what we just learned. We call this activation. The leader of activation is also in charge of our team’s ministry, so as a result, the team of men gets split up, and we go to join the girls.
All three weeks of activation I have been sent out with the same team. One of the things we did the first two weeks was visit a woman named Gloria. Gloria is incredibly strong, inspiringly brave, amazingly faithful, and she broke our hearts. Not too long ago Gloria broke her nose in a motorcycle accident. One week later she was diagnosed with stage four blood cancer. Her cancer has spread to the point where it affects her whole body. Her husband is deciding what to do with Gloria; they might get a blood transfusion but those are risky in this country. Gloria is also a 27-year-old mother of 3 incredibly beautiful kids, all of whom are under the age of 3. She had already been to the hospital to fix her broken nose, but this week she went back to the hospital because last time the nose did not get properly fixed. We know Gloria is going through a lot, but we have confidence that the Lord is not finished with her yet.
On the first activation day we went to Gloria’s house. We had to follow dirt paths through backyards, around cornfields, and up hills to get there. The first thing I remember upon reaching the house was the peering eyes of her three kids. The team I was with had visited Gloria before, so they found the way into her bedroom. Her bedroom had no source of light and was barely big enough to hold the 6 of us around the bed. Gloria was laying on her back, her nose bandaged, and her voice barely audible.
Our translator started talking to her, and she said that her whole body was in pain because of her cancer, her head had specifically bad pain, and she couldn’t move her arm. We prayed for her, and then we prayed again, and again, and again. We ended up praying for her about 7 times, and by the end of it she said that she had no more pain throughout her body and she was able to move her arm. She also asked us to pray for peace over her because it’s been really hard accepting that this is how her kids see her. When we left she said that she felt at peace.
The next Thursday we visited Gloria again. She was still laying in the same position as she was when we had last seen her. This time we got to talk to her a lot about how she’s handling the situation, her faith, and her kids. She was so thankful that we would come to continually visit her even though we had no reason to. She seemed so much more full of faith. She was saying how she still praised God and that she wanted us to keep praying for her kids.
I was awe-struck at how bold she was in faith. She talked about how she knows that God will watch over her and her family, and she was even bold enough to declare that when our squad leaves in three months she will be fully healed. We were so moved by her boldness that one of our squad leaders promised her that we would be on her side fighting for her, and that each of us would ask our supporters at home to fight for her with us.
I am asking all of you to join us praying for Gloria. She is such an impressive model of bold faith, and I wanted to share that with all of you in the hopes that we can band together for her. Think of Gloria when you need reminded of faith, strength, boldness, and love. We know that God is not done with her yet.
