Kazakhstan was a country that wasn’t all I thought it’d be. Mine and my co-leaders plans were to split our time between two teams in two different parts of the country but train tickets are hard to come by so we spent two days with one team and a week with the second team.
If I’ve learned anything at this point it’s truly that this wasn’t by mistake. Rather than being upset or feeling defeated I enjoyed my time seeing the country and resting. I asked the Lord over and over what the plan was and what He has for me this month. Kazakhstan was my last winter country. (PRAISE) It was covered in snow and only a hand full of sunny days but when we arrived to the second team in Almaty, it weirdly reminded me of home.
I had just bought my airline ticket home so I thought, “Nope. Not really ready Jesus to feel home”.
We jump in to serving with the local church that the team had connections with and our third day we get to visit a children’s cancer ward.
I prayed before I went in that my heart would be able to handle the inadequacies of a children’s cancer ward. I walked in knowing it would be different than the care a child would receive in the states. Now, it’s almost laughable I prayed that prayer because the lack of equipment that this hospital would have wasn’t what would break my heart.
We go to the arts and crafts room and join some kiddos making frogs out of empty toilet paper rolls. We play and laugh with them and help them glue the goggly eyes on the frog.
Then we’re told we would make a frog for a kid that was too sick to come that day. I make my frog and follow our sweet friend into a room to give mine away and am stopped in my tracks.
A sweet little light haired, freckled faced, and blue eyed little boy wearing an avengers t-shirt was lying there attached to an IV. I move over and sit on his bed and present the silliest little frog and he smiles. I start making frog noises and making the frog jump on him. He giggles and watches the frog jump.
I do this over and over and even start to tickle him and his grin gets wider and wider, the boy is full of giggles. As I sit with him and tickle him, I pray for healing over his body, I pray for strength for the day, I pray for joy to fill every part of him and I pray for him to know my sweet Jesus.
It’s time to leave so I get up from his bed, wave goodbye and walk out of his hospital room.
There are moments that I cannot cry instantly. I have to beg the Father to help me keep it together until later and walking out of his room was one of those moments. We still had frogs to give away but part of me stayed there with him. I got home hours later and was able to finally let it go, I thanked God for Devin’s health. I thanked God I get to see Devin run around, jump, eat, laugh, and even pester me. I would have given quite a lot to have been able to hug Devin in that moment but instead, that day I got to hug a little boy that needed it as much as I did. If I thought this whole month of things not going as planned was so that I would have gotten that day, all worth it and I would gladly miss every train again.
