It is serious business when an entire village lines up outside a small dark wooded building all day, just to have a bit of medical attention. It also catches your attention when several other villages meet you at the door, to ask your team to see their villages of over 100 people as well. This is just a small example of how the need both physical and spiritual, is presenting itself, and knocking on our door. But we are only human, and our resources do have limits… We always tell God before we begin each clinic that we have nothing to give. Everything we have is His, and only by Him are we able to do or give anything. This was again highlighted to me later that day, as we were slowly dwindling down to our last Tylenol & vitamins in our travel box. I was thinking “what are we going to give when we run out of medicine?”
But, Tums and
Tylenol are not going meet the deeper need that this village has, and our team
knows that. The deeper need is the spiritual dryness and hardness of the hearts
of the people. We present the gospel each time we do clinic, and I know those
words do not fall to the ground…but how do you minister to a person of the village
who tells you they are not interested in knowing more about the Jesus you know?
And how do you teach the importance of meeting with local believers when the only
local spirit filled church charges a large sum of money to even get prayer?
Ugh. The injustice!! So, I wrestled with
these thoughts after our last clinic in Chamisa.
But then, last night,
during our night of worship, I closed my eyes and that small still voice
flooded over me. At first, I got a picture of myself elderly, at the end of my
life. I was sitting with other elderly people, as we praised the name of Jesus.
In that moment, when all was said and done, and the Creator of all things was soon
going to take me back to dust, all I
could remember was Jesus. He was the answer. He was my purpose. He is the reason
why I lived. Then, I got a picture of the earth around me. I saw the dry lands
of Canilla’, the beasts of the field that search for food, the women who are unjustly
treated, the poor, the needy, the hurting, the dying. Then I saw Jesus come to
earth, and all these needs were taken care of in an instant. The dry land had
water, the beasts had food, the women were comforted, the poor were made rich,
the sick healed, the dying made alive!
The only answer is Jesus. He is the answer. And all creation
groans and waits for the answer. There may be a daily cry that goes forth from
the earth , but Jesus will soon answer….People get ready!
Isaiah
40:6-8
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
