My teammate Michelle and I have decided that Jeni is our primary ministry while here in Arcalia.
Each day at 3 p.m., while others go play with kids she and I take the walk to Jeni’s small house. Sometimes others join us, but she and I have been Jeni’s constant afternoon companions. I wrote about Jeni in my last blog. Each day that goes by we feel closer to her. I never thought it possible to have such a connection to someone in such a short period of time.
Saturday was perhaps the most difficult day on the race so far.
While the two of us visited with her and talked about the next day’s revival that we were helping with and that she was excited to attend, we laughed and joked like we always do. Then all of a sudden she couldn’t handle the pain. A family member walked by (we usually have our talks outside under a tree) and she had him wheel her back to the house and lay her down.
Michelle and I followed not knowing what to do.
Jeni cried out in pain and the only words we could understand were “God” and “Jesus.”
I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for someone like I did that day. Both Michelle and I did the only thing we could do.
With tears rolling down our cheeks and our friend yelling out in pain, we begged God to take the pain away. Meanwhile she cried and continued to yell.
It’s hard to know that back home someone with arthritis has easy access to medications and doctors that can help ease the pain. She even told us the day that the doctor visited her that in America we have good doctors and here they don’t.
All we had to offer were prayer and tears.
We walked away from her house with her screams still calling out. We were hurt, confused, angry, sad. It’s not fair.
Michelle and I walked and walked around the village to the river, praying confused and angry (mine were, at least) prayers. We have faith that God is a healer. But Jeni remained in pain no matter how much she cried out and no matter how much we cried out on her behalf.
Moments like these we automatically think that as Americans we have access to medication, how can we fix it? But we realize that we decided to depend only on God and accept that only he can truly fix things.
The next day, after a long string of events, she didn’t make it to church. As two teams, we decided to take church to her.
We showed up at her house, her husband wheeled her out and 14 Americans sang out to God under that tree.
She burst into tears.
She told us that the day before, while Michelle and I were there, she was convinced it was her last day on earth the pain was so intense.
We prayed over her again, Aubrey taking hold of her legs and asking God to take the pain away. Gabi, our translator and hostess, rubbed her back as we all prayed. When it was all said and done, she said she didn’t feel pain in her legs and she felt something in her back.
She wasn’t completely healed, but the pain, both in her joints and in her heart, subsided for a moment.
Another teammate, Hope, told Jeni that God was proud of her faith. Jeni cried again, saying that she thought God had forgotten her.
But in that moment, when she realized that God sent all of us all the way from America to pray for her and encourage her she said she’d remember it for the rest of her life.
