I loved ministry last month. We worked on the farm and planted new things. We visited young boys in prison. We had swim lessons and we were poured into by our host and his family. I thrived last month, so much that I wasn’t really ready to leave Thailand.
Our last week of ministry looked a little different than the previous two weeks. On Wednesday, we went to a few houses in the villages to pray for people and share the gospel. We stopped at the hospital and picked up a nurse who joined us to visit the sick and elderly. This was a lot like our ministry in India, and although I think this ministry is so important, it’s also not in my comfort zone. Being around sick elderly people isn’t where I thrive. I mostly feel awkward and unsure of what to say or do.
On Wednesday we told the elderly people that we’d be back on Friday to see them and bring them some soy milk. (Fast forward to Friday) We went to the store and Pat (our ministry host) tells us we needed to pick up 13 packs of milk. We were slightly confused because Wednesday we only visited three houses. Pat then explained that today we’d be visiting 13 houses. We knew we were in for a long day. After the store, we picked up the nurse from the hospital again and headed into the village.
First we visited an older gentleman who was 77 years old. He recently had heart surgery and wasn’t healing well. We prayed for him, shared the gospel and allowed the nurse to check him. We then visited the house next door, which happened to be that gentleman’s mom. She was the cutest old lady ever. She was 96 years old. Her body was swollen and her skin was very dry due to her kidney’s failing. We prayed for her and the nurse gave her some lotion for her body and we moved on to the next house.
After, we walked over to the neighbors house where all the windows were shut. We entered into a dark room where a little old lady was laying on a sleeping mat. She was 85 years old and had no family to take care of her. She relied on her neighbors to bring her food and take care of her. We sat around her and our host translated to us her story. We noticed her skin was irritated and started to look around. Her sleeping mat was infested with ants, and they had begun to eat at the flesh in between her toes. Our hearts broke and we felt helpless. We didn’t know how to help her, or where to even begin. Pat immediately jumped in and got on the phone explaining that he was going to get her a new sleeping mat and that we should start cleaning her room for her. We moved her off the dirty mat and onto clean blankets. Some of the team went with Pat to get a new sleeping mat, while the rest of us stayed with her. We sang her worship songs and read her a few Psalms while waiting for Pat and the others to return. After a while the others arrived with a new mat. They washed it and put clean sheets on it and then we slowly moved her onto the new mat. Her eyes filled with tears and we sat with her, holding her hands and prayed with her. Soon after we had to leave, so we made sure she was comfortable, said our goodbyes and left.
When we were walking to the truck some of us noticed we had spent more than an hour and a half with this lady. She was only the third house on our list of 13 that we were visiting for the day. Pat told us that because we spent so much time at her house we wouldn’t be making trips to the other 10. He said he would visit them the next week. For some reason this stuck with me. How cool was it that we just spent an hour and a half with a lady that we didn’t know very well, that couldn’t speak our language and didn’t even share our same belief. We dropped our whole schedule to comfort her and help her.
I’d like to think this is how Jesus did his ministry. I don’t think that everything Jesus did was his preferred ministry (maybe it was) but he did it anyways. He loved on the sick. He went out of his way for people who didn’t know him. He loved them even though they had differences between each other. Taking care of the sick and elderly wasn’t a ministry I felt most comfortable in, but God moved that day. He showed his love through seven American girls whose hearts broke for a little Thai lady that was sick and alone.
I know that on the Race I’ll have times where the ministry isn’t my favorite, or where I don’t feel the most comfortable. But I know that God can still use me. I know that, like Jesus and his ministry, I can die to self, put others first and love the way Jesus first loved us. PEACE
XOXO
Heather
