Today was our day out. The majority of the team got to enjoy childrens day at Faith Home by watching a program by the school children, as well as have a pizza party with the Faith Home children, house parents and missionaries. It was an amazing day for all.
A few of us joined Saul and Larry Warren as they traveled around to check on past hearing aid patients. Larry adjusted their devices as needed and re-supplied them with batteries. He also fit a new patient at one of our stops in Santa Rita. The look on her face is unforgettable! She arrived as a timid, scared looking girl who dropped her eyes as if ashamed. As she began to hear sounds, perhaps for the first time, she raised her head to attention and grinned from ear to ear, almost engulfing her face. She looked at Larry expectantly and almost begging for another sound, then another until suddenly she was looking at her mom with a glimmer of tears in both their eyes. The lonely secluded world of silence would be hers no more. The girl could hear! Glory to God!
Just as in eyeglasses this week, I saw that the restoration of someones senses, puts an amazement in their mind and awe in their hearts. No matter what tools we are using to facilitate the gift or what person is standing before them.....it is a gift from God. It is a miracle!
One of the stops today was to check on our special little girl Sadia, in El Banano. We traveled down the bumpy grown up path through the tall grass to the structure that Sadia and her family were staying in. We got out of the vehicle spraying for bugs and gathering up the groceries we had brought for the family. Sadia's face lit up as she saw us and we hugged and greeted her and her family.
Larry went to work on her hearing aid and I began to look around. I had been here only a few short months ago and not much had changed except more tall grass and bugs. However, as I looked at the structure they call home, it was as if I was seeing it for the first time. A block building with no windows or doors. Only two rooms. One had doorways covered with raggedy sheets and I assumed that was where they slept. I wondered about the bugs that were tearing their way through our deep woods bug spray. How could they sleep with the life sucking prey all over them?
Then I looked at the other room. Through the open doorway I saw......NOTHING. no furniture, no food or supplies. I walked around and looked further. No pipes or source of running water. No bathroom. No shower. I looked in horror at their lice infested heads and scabies covered bodies and the reality set in. I turned and broke into tears.
I cried out to God. I know there are millions of people in the world living in the same and even worse conditions. And I know that I can't help them all. But this is Sadia! We know her. We love her. We watched God give her the ability to hear. I refuse to turn away and pretend this isn't real. I refuse to remain unchanged from this reality. I refuse not to move when God breaks my heart for what breaks His!
When we returned to Faith Home we gathered some lice shampoo, scabies treatment and other items to be delivered to Sadia. I trust that God is not finished with our connection to this special little girl and I know this is not the end of her story.
Everything done and seen this week, we were empowered to do from God, to give Him the glory. Pointing people to him didn't end with the clinic and it didn't end with today. It never ends until ALL PEOPLE have heard about our Savior Jesus Christ. It doesn't end until we complete the task set before us and tell of His love.....to the ends of the earth. We MUST be His hands, feet and heart.
We all have a story to tell. Does your story lead the hearts around you to Christ? You may not feel called to go on a mission trip or live in a foreign land, but you are called to tell the ones around you who God is and what He has done. You are called to do what you know to do with the needs placed before you. What are you waiting for?
