"Lord I'm beginning to see a light in all this non-stop extreme poverty I've been swimming in." It's just not about the stuff, the comfort, even the knowing where your food is coming from. It is solely just about you Jesus...Teach me more.
He did. We walked the trail back through the corn fields and grasses until we reached the ministry site again. Not sure what our next assignment was we stood around waiting for direction in the middle of school going on for many children, women making baskets and jewelry and witnessing a line of maybe 150 people or more waiting to be seen at the clinic. The clinic. To my knowledge consisted of a nurse from America that had been there 6 days and another that had been there a few weeks, and a few of our team members with a medical background. While waiting for further instruction a team member came up and said"Please start praying,we have some really sick kids."
We did.
On the red dusty path in the middle of the village. Asked Jesus to come and heal the sick kids. Soon the nurse said to our group I need more hands. Before I knew it as kids were being triaged by severity of fever, a little boy with a fever of 103+ was sitting in my lap. There was no medication, no bed to lay him on, no cold wash cloths for his hot skin. I quickly removed my t-shirt thanking God I had dressed in layers that day and dunked it in the water bucket next to me I began calmly wiping his hot black skin and praying in my soul just the name, Jesus. His name more; of an SOS cry and plead for myself not to fall apart, and a crisis 911 to the Almighty to intervene because this "Unskilled, unschooled, ordinary" team of people were sinking. Someone gave the little pumpkin on my lap a syringe of a water/sugar/salt/ solution and I just continued to wipe his skin and say The Name. It's funny looking back because I was saying Jesus name and thinking all at the same time...Why didn't we bring our supplies today, where is the Ibuprofen, these kids need IV's, antibiotics, everything that I'm used to having when rocking my own sick babies in America..A comfortable rocking chair, the remote, the first nurse on speed dial, my mom's advice, Popsicles, ice packs, rotating Ibuprofen and Tylenol. A clinic in an actual building with a Dr. who would fill out a paper,which would be your ticket to get a pill that would alleviate the illness, and send you on your way. There was none of that there. The only thing I had was my soaking t-shirt and Jesus name. I was doubting, because at home I could fix and finagle kids fevers along with a little help from my friends. How was this ever going to work out for these kids? Fear entertained my thoughts and I began to think, "Some of these little ones aren't going to make it"...There were fevers of 105+. I continued to say The Name...Jesus. And I began to realize that is all I had and that it was going to have to be enough. So I began to not just say it in my soul but to speak it in a quite whisper as I laid my hand on the little boys bald head and continued to wipe his fevered body calmly and soothingly as the Holy Spirit began to flow out of my soul. I just wiped his skin and said Jesus name and someone came around and gave him another syringe. His fever broke and he was placed on the other side of the yard under a shade treat where kids had been triaged with fevers under 103. Now beside me were four kids laying on a borrowed sheet on the ground not moving. Their skin was obnoxiously hot to the touch. One little girl who appeared to be about 10 years old and hideously thin yet adoringly beautiful with her black bald head and little pinafore school uniform was the sickest. Her eyes were mostly closed but would sometimes come half way open and roll back into her head. Little bubbles came up to her lips and formed around the corners of her mouth and ever so slightly but quickly her body trembled. Flies swarmed around her feet due to the open wounds and jiggers that had imbedded themselves under her skin. Another team member sat at her feet and covered them. I sat at her head and did what I had done for the little boy. Spoke the name of Jesus over and over, believing it this time. I lovingly and gently wiped her heated shriveled skin and prayed. I knew Jesus was there. He was thick and undeniable and I prayed to The One who had seen all of this little girls days' before one of them ever came to be.
We were soon told to move the kids to a shadier area where it would be a little cooler. I was not fond of thinking about moving her and a friend helped to move her stiff body to the shadier spot. Laying there her little heart raced attempting to fight off the infection desperate to have her. I wiped and prayed and waited for Jesus to come and heal this girl weather by life or by death; I knew he would.
What seemed to be forever, sitting in the middle of this chaotically- messy- beautiful gospel being lived was only around 20-30 minutes. Soon the little girl opened her eyes and sat up! She began speaking her native tongue which I did not understand. I tried to hold a cup up to her mouth to give her a drink but she shook her head no! A translator came over and said, "She's asking to go behind the house," which means she had to go to the bathroom! Quickly we began to help her up a little too late, behind the house turned into all over the missionaries; we didn't care. She was awake and speaking! What a miracle. We cleaned her up the best we could and her teacher took her to get some lunch! That was it Jesus had healed his child. And not just her but all of the little ones on the borrowed sheet. And just in time the rain clouds rolled in and the crowd of waiting mamas and their babies cleared back into the bush. I was in shock; a joyful shock. I had witnessed God heal hearts over time, people through surgeries, medicine, I've experienced a little of the unexplainable but I had never seen it like this. Jesus supernatural power of healing came down and touched the sick at Ekubo ministries that day. Little did I know that morning when I woke up what a divine appointment to witness the unlimited power of Jesus name I had. Jesus didn't need me but he did choose me to use my hands as His hands as I wiped the hot black shriveled skin. All I did was show up. That is the kind of Jesus I serve. The creator of the world who does it so marvelously on his own, yet chooses limited humans to fulfill his divine plans, gives us his Spirit without limit, and demands us to Go into all of His world and preach this powerful live giving Gospel promising that He will be with us even to the end of the age.
