Gertrude

She hobbled over towards me with a beaming smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. Two things that I hadn't seen in her the night before.

The previous evening, she waited outside our gate as the sun was setting. She was so sick that I was afraid she wasn't going to be able to walk home. She only lives a few houses down the road, and we met her through the children in her courtyard that come to our kids' club each Thursday. Her name is Gertrude.

She said she had suffered from severe diarrhea for five days, and it looked like she didn't have an ounce of water left in her body. Her eyes were sunken, and she hardly had the energy to breathe. I wanted to send her to the hospital, but I feared she would not get the help she needed. The hospital is staffed poorly at night, and often people who come at night often do not get seen until the next morning. In that moment, I wanted so badly to have my own clinic, where I could give her a bed, some IV fluids, and oxygen. I wanted to stay with her through the night. I wanted to be able to treat her with dignity and compassionate care. Maybe one day. 

In the meantime, all we knew to do was buy her some medicine from the pharmacy. And pray. We always pray. 

The next morning, I went to check on her first thing. When I arrived at her house, no one was there. I finally found a man and asked for Gertrude, and he said, "She is not here. She left this morning." 

Just as I was thinking, left for where? I saw her off in the distance, hobbling towards the car. A beaming smile and a sparkle in her eye! 

"I am feeling a lot better," she told me. She hadn't had a single episode of diarrhea since I gave her the medicine the night before, and she held down all her fluids throughout the night. She had been working that morning in the fields. 

This is truly a miracle. I thought, and I knew in that moment that prayer works. Well really, God works. He is always at work. And he hears and answers our prayers. 

"Where do you go church on Sundays?" she asked me. "I want to go with you this week, no matter where you go, so that I can give thanks to God." 

She recognized where her healing came from. 

So we loaded her up in the car with us on Sunday morning and headed out to where a village church meets every Sunday. After hearing the lesson, the pastor allowed time for people to share testimonies of how God had been working in their lives. Gertrude stood up before everyone, even a church congregation that she did not know, and gave praise to God for bringing her healing that week. 

Back in the car, she bragged about how powerful the preaching was and how much she enjoyed the service."I want to come back every week," she announced. "If you bring the car, I can go with you. Or I can ride my bike, but it needs some repairs." 

That was wonderful news, but also showed us how much we need a church in our city that's not so far away, where people don't have to overcome many obstacles just to go to church. We encouraged Gertrude and then added, "One day soon, we hope to have a church right here in our city, and you are definitely invited."

One day, we will have a church up on the hill in our city, and it will be filled with people like Gertrude who come and worship God for what he has done for them. They will come to be fed with the Word of God and to continue to grow in their knowledge and love for the Lord. One day, we will also have a medical clinic where we can treat people with dignity and compassion. And one day, we will see many, many more stories like Gertrude. 

Until then, we will keep praying. We will always, always keep praying. And making pharmacy runs. And doing what we can to help. And loading people in the car to bring them to church. And praising God with people like Gertrude who recognize where the healing comes from: not from our pharmacy runs but from our prayers and the God who always hears and answers.