I am incredibly thankful for yesterday. I’ve been out sick for the last few days and yesterday was the first real day of ministry that I got to be a part of. It was the first time our entire team has done ministry together. All I could think yesterday was how thankful I was for the day because I have felt like I have been missing out the last few days. All I have been able to do since I’ve been here is stay at home and it felt like yesterday I finally was able to serve.
We were treating people with jiggers, mostly children and a few adults and it was hard seeing all the children in so much pain. One of the ones that sticks out in my mind is the little boy that Tom and I worked on for a while. He was maybe 10 years old and he sat there as we put hydrogen peroxide on him as well as the other parts of the treatment and he was completely silent. All of the other children around us were crying as other members of our team were treating them and our little boy was being so strong. I’m sure it was incredibly painful, but he pushed through. At one point he started crying silently, but he never said a word.
We know that the treatment we gave them wont be lasting. They people we treated don’t have shoes, and the jiggers will probably come back at some point. But God is the true healer. And he is the one who takes the cares and pain away. It hurts us to think that what we did yesterday might not make that big of a difference, but then we just put our faith in God. We know that he is the only one that can truly heal.
I was doing the last step of the treatment for an older woman that barely spoke English yesterday and as I was finshing, she looked me in the eyes and struggled to get out the words “thank you.” It was humbling. No matter how much we feel like it makes no difference, it makes a difference to the people we encounter because we are showing that someone cares. Bwana asifiwi – Praise the Lord.
