Before I left Texas I had the privilege of speaking at my
home church, The Mission. Pastor Cory and I had made plans that I would share on my last Sunday home and I was fine with just a
few minutes. He called the day before ready to bargain with me. I was like,
“Five minutes would be fine”, he said, “twenty”. Did I need to remind him that
I bargain for a living in Africa more often than he did? I mentioned ten with a
video and than he offered the whole service to me. Finally got him down to 15
minutes and thus started a Saturday night preparing a sermon from scratch. I
knew I had my VVF video to show, but what else could I share, how could I
challenge a group of believers? Most of them raised me in the nursery and knew my
missionary stories. Some were parents of kids I used to babysit and youth group
kids I led in Bible studies, all grown up. However as I looked out across the
congregation the next morning there were new faces. My home church has kept
meeting together despite downsizing to become The Mission for the surrounding
areas of Hurst-Euless-Bedford. Its not a mega-church, but a place full of
people that are willing to love each other by taking meals to those in need and
keeping those that are sick in their prayers. I wanted to challenge them what
it looks like to love outside your comfort zone. What it means to not only love
your neighbor, but your enemy or even love a stranger. I shared with them the
ministry of loving the unlovable. I have had the pleasure of holding babies
with cleft lips that have been shunned from their villages. Holding the hand of
a patient before surgery and that physical touch being rare since the tumor
took his face. This past year, loving the fistula ladies that endured days-long
labor, losing a baby, and their husbands leaving them because they smell like
urine. I have to admit this is still difficult to explain to a huge audience
like in a church, but over coffee with a nurse friend I can talk about fistulas
with no hesitation. I shared with my congregation that these ladies are often
seen as modern-day lepers. Sometimes like the woman with the issue of blood who
reached out to touch Jesus’ robe risking her life, but receiving healing
because of her faith. As well as,
the Samaritan woman that Jesus meets at the well probably shunned by her
community since she is the only one there at the time. Our screening team
sometimes can find the fistula ladies very early in the morning by the river
doing their washing and collecting water before the rest of village wakes
up. I showed the video I made this
summer with a song called “When Loves Sees You” by Mac Powell and the words
ring true for not only my patients, but also you and me. The lyrics describe
Jesus’ ministry on earth that we need to follow- loving others no matter their
wounds.
I continued on with about 8 minutes left, watching the clock
since I’m not one that likes the spotlight. Pastory Cory had been speaking on 1
Corinthians 13 that past weeks, so I outlined my mini-sermon based on the passage.
Sixth graders at our church memorized the chapter for years in the Williams
Sunday School class to receive our own Bible at the end of the year. The
scripture has always stayed with me and even last year I had a keychain with
the verses 4-7. For me, a needed
reminder that love is patient, kind, and not easily angered as I worked along
side nurses from another background than mine. As I took care of Isatu for
months, I knew that this love endured all things and showed her love that did
not give up, but hoped for her to be better again one day. Another patient I became close to,
before she left the centre, gave me the only possession she brought with her.
It was a simple craft of yarn made into a ball, but she gave me everything she
had out of love. I will strive to do the same and support her in school, with love, or
else it doesn’t count for anything. When I shared my ladies’ stories, I saw the
tears being wiped away in the audience; I even had to keep mine at bay. As I
sat in front of church, it came to me how much my Heavenly Father loves me.
Love moves people to give everything they have to those they love. God ask the
same for us because He did it first- by sending his Son. Just like the song in
video, Jesus “came for your story, came for your wounds, to show you what Loves
sees, when Love sees you.”
To watch the video click here: Love
