~ Called to Love ~
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
Earlier today I took some time to journal about ministry this past Friday. As I was writing I couldn’t help the tears that kept coming to my eyes.
Let me tell you one of the many ways God has been moving here in Thailand.
Friday afternoon we traveled back out a few villages here in Chiang Mai. We visited the three families from Wednesday (the ones I shared about in my previous blog) as well as some new ones.
There was one lady in particular that has left me changed forever.
We started off our day of ministry picking up two nurses from the hospital to come to the villages with us. When entering the third home, I was left in absolute shock. We walked in to a dark room with an elderly lady laying on a mat on the floor. It smelled of sickness and as we looked closely at her bed there were ants everywhere. To make things worse, ants were all over her feet eating the flesh from in between her toes. My heart broke! I cannot even begin to explain to you the numerous emotions that flooded my mind. As I looked around I noticed only one window open, a small bag of old rice next to her bed, dirty sheets, and nobody else there but her. I noticed myself struggling to stand and that my legs and hands were beginning to shake. I’ve never felt something like this before but I knew my heart was breaking for this woman. We ended up opening more windows and sitting next to our new friend.
Our ministry host Pat informed us that her name is Keaw and she is 84 years old. She never married or had any children so their is nobody to take care of her. As we sat and talked to her some of the neighbors made their way over. Some peaked their heads through the windows in curiosity and others came and sat down with us.
The ladies on my team and I began singing and playing the guitar for Keaw and the smile on her face was enough to bring some of us to tears and others to laughter. As we sat there I couldn’t stop thinking of how I could best love and serve her in the short time I had with her.
I ended up finding some water and a clean rag to clean the ants out and off of her feet. I asked Pat if we could change out her sheets and clean her up. Instead, Pat was on a mission to find her a new bed all together!! Before Pat left we ended up moving Keaw from the moldy and ant infested mat onto some clean blankets. We swept and cleaned the floors and opened up the rest of the windows to let in fresh air. Pat ended up leaving with one of the nurses and some of my teammates to find her a bed. So we were fortunate enough to spend more time with this wonderful woman.
While we waited for them to return, my teammate Caitlin and I continued to sing songs to sweet Keaw and read through many Psalms. I also gave her some milk which we brought for her. At one point I went outside to pick some flowers for her since I was unsure of the last time she was outside. I noticed the change in her body language and facial expressions from the first time we saw her to that point; she seemed to be at peace for the first time in a long time. I noticed her glance up and out the window many times as we sang her songs and read to her.
When everyone returned with the new sleeping pad we could see the joy and surprise on Keaw’s face! She immediately put her hands in the prayer/thank you motion and left them there for what seemed to be a minute. The bed was not the only great news either! One of the nurses brought cream for Keaw’s feet and was actually the one that donated the bed to her. As we set up Keaw’s new bed, one of her neighbors was there to help move her back from the blankets to the new and greatly improved sleeping pad. It turns out this kind elderly man owns a tiny store around the corner from her home and does his best to take care of her when he has extra money and time.
Reading a Psalm!
Keaw with her freshly picked flower! 🙂
The wonderful nurses who came with us. The nurse on the left is the one who donated the sleeping pad to Keaw and is also the lady I wrote about in my previous blog (A Day to Remember).
Wow! I cannot thank God enough for leading us to this woman’s home and for providing in such a beautiful way!
How great is it that we are called to serve a God who asks us to love Him and to love one another? It brought me pure joy being able to love Keaw even for a short period of time. And I praise Jesus for Pat! He will be going to back visit and check on our new friend often!
Thanks for reading! 🙂
