About a week ago, we arrived in Nelspruit, South Africa for debrief. Our squad takes five or six personal days every few months to take a break and redirect our focus, process the last months, and do fun things. On one of our free days, my friend Kara and I went to the mall during our free time. As we were walking around, I was asking God to make me aware of the needs of others and to give us an opportunity to pray for someone. I didn’t think to tell Kara this out loud, I just kept it between me and God. So we were walking around the mall and a woman came up to us, sobbing. I knew this was a God thing. Through tears and sobs, the woman introduced herself (her name is Sharlena) and began to explain to us that her husband had just recently passed away in December and everyone else in her life had passed away except for her child. And on top of all of that, she just had a terrible cooking accident. She explained that she was cooking dinner and got severely burned, and she even showed us the burns. It was apparent that she needed medical help. The burns went from her chest down to her lower stomach and the burn was in the form of one giant blister bubble on her stomach- and it was being pressed down from her shirt. My heart broke. Here is this woman standing before us, all alone, sobbing from emotional and physical pain. I could only imagine the things she was feeling- loss, brokenness, abandonment, loneliness, and pain. This woman was in need in more ways than I could hep her. We explained to her that we are traveling missionaries and don’t have the funds to help her get the medicine for her burns. This also broke my heart because everything in me just wanted to help her. But what I did tell her is that although we cannot offer her money, we have something much better to offer her. Prayer. I told her that we believe in a God that heals. She shared that she also believes in the same God. So there we stood, in the middle of a busy mall, praying for a woman in need. This is something God has been teaching me about lately- meeting the needs of people with prayer. I believe prayer should be our first resort, not our last. If we believe in a God that has healed the blind and raised the dead to life and restored the lame, why would He not be my first resort? Prayer is powerful, because our God is powerful. That’s why it’s the best thing I have to offer. So what did we do in this time of need? We prayed. We prayed for God to meet Sharlene in her mourning and comfort her. We prayed for God to heal her burns. We prayed for God to bring along someone else who’s able to provide the funds for her to buy medicine for her burns. I watched a weight lift off of her. I believe God can heal her, and I pray that He does. I believe God was intentional by putting Sharlene in our path today. Thank you, God. May you be with Sharlena wherever she is.
