It was an off day. Everyone had split up. Tony, Shannon, and I had gone to the grocery store. When we were done we were the first ones back to the compound. We split up and put away our food and then tony went to go lay down. Shannon and I were in our makeshift kitchen/hangout room when we heard someone knocking at the gate. Shannon got up to look and called me over. There was a woman there carrying her baby on her back. She was asking if there was a doctor or anyone here that could help her. I tried explaining to her that we were missionaries not doctors but that there is a hospital here on the compound. She told us that she went to the hospital but she did not have the money to get the medicine she needed from there and someone had sent here here. Shannon and I did not know if our hosts were here so we got tony and he tried looking for them but we were here alone. I asked her if she could come back when they were here and she said no, she lived far away. We apologized that we could not get the help she had asked for here right now. We also asked if it was for her or her baby. It was her baby, maricella, she had an infection in her nose and throat. She was about to leave and Shannon asked if we could pray for her. We asked if it was ok to lay hands on her and her baby. She said yes so we prayed. We prayed for God’s provision in any form, whether that be a doctor where she lived, being able to come here with money another day, or for His miraculous healing. As we were praying she started weeping. When we finished we said goodbye and she left.
When she left Shannon, tony, and I had a conversation about wanting to do more, but realizing that was wrong. We didn’t want to do something more, we had done everything, the best thing, we could do. We asked God to take care of this mother and baby. What we wished was that we could have done something tangible. But I as I often remind myself sometimes God choses to do the tangible, the thing I want to do, through someone else and that is ok. All I can do is pray to God and follow the Holy Spirits promptings, that is what God asks of me.
