we win

although this week has been tough, it has passed rapidly. a large missions team from south carolina arrived on tuesday night, with plans to build one church, and one childrens center. 15 members of the 25 person team (most of them with some sort of occupation in the medical field) also helped with two medical clinics. i joined the medical team. the first place on our agenda was the mathari slums. as you know, that is one of my favorite places to be. i jumped at the chance to serve the mathari people. we arrived early wednesday morning  at the mathari church and prepared for the day ahead. we set up a large pharmacy, a registration area, a holding room for patients waiting to be seen, and a triage room. we closed in the front of the sanctuary using white sheets as small cubicals for examining rooms, and set aside two areas for spiritual counseling. surprisingly with everyone working together we had it ready in little time. we all gathered, each of us joining hands, consecrating the day to the Glory of the Lord. with renewed strength in the Lord we dispatched and went to our various positions. i had the opportunity to sit in with a doctor. i have never been much of a go-getter when it comes to blood and guts, but i actually enjoyed the partial nursing experience. we, of course, had to have an interpreter by our side. i was intently listening to the back and forth dialog, pleased to be picking up on bits and pieces of the swahili language. as one patient was speaking to our interpreter i could have swore i heard her say she had a fly in living in her ear. ha i smiled at my poor understanding of what she had said. a fly? yeah right. anyway, the interpreter turned to tell us that the woman had indeed said she had a fly residing inside her ear. she said that she has been hearing it scratch and make ruckus for three months now! the doctor stooped, looking to journey inside her ear with that instrument that they use. (the one with a light on the end, they use it to look at your tonsils and such.) incredibly something was in fact living inside her ear! a bug of some sort. poor lady. that was a strange case. another woman with three children in tow came into the cubical. she was severely infected with aids. i wondered if her children were doomed with the same disease. people with mere headaches came. people with poor eyesight and runny noses. an elderly man with extremely high blood pressure came. he broke my heart. loneliness walked hand in hand with him. he donned a plaid golfers hat, and brown knitted pants. his eyes were so full of history and knowledge. he looked like the type of man that could keep you awake hours upon hours unfolding his past sagas. he was so aged with what seemed to be pain and sadness. he smiled through broken teeth and told me he loved us for coming. the doctor said he probably would not have made it much longer if we hadn’t have given him medical treatment right then. i wonder where that man is tonight….even more so than physical ailments, these people brought burdens. impossible to carry alone. every time i looked into a pair of brown eyes it seemed like i could feel a part of their heavy sufferings. it was almost suffocating. i wept many times, yet i understood only a fraction of what they had to carry. and they carried it alone. i thought of Jesus on the day of His death. He carried every sin, every burden, every imperfect thing, for us. i wonder how much it all weighed. He took it. willingly. because of His great sacrifice for us, i know that today, every single burden has been dealt with, and conquered. Jesus has put it in the grave. He has beaten it all! we no longer have to stagger and fall under the pressures and sins of this dark world. He has conquered! He has won! that means in Him, WE win! we don’t have to let it beat us upside the head anymore. no more bruised knees and black eyes from what the enemy has taken. we have already won. Jesus won, even with every sin and burden upon Him! His strength was enough. and if its enough for that huge task, then it is enough for us. we conquer, in Him!

1 john 5:4

⁴For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.