Sitting down heavily on the steps and reaching to tie my shoes, I sighed. Tim and I were getting ready to leave the house and head for the “home by the orchard.” I knew some very isolated and lonely people were expecting us. Problem was, I felt like I had nothing in me to give them. We had already prayed for God’s strength and wisdom.We had asked to be sensitive to His leading. But I hadn’t slept well and a dull pain was throbbing in my right temple. Plus, I kept forgetting things. If just the task of gathering together sermon CDs, purse, Bible and water bottle was this hard, how was I going to be able to minister to anybody? Only past grace got me out the door.
Two hours later, it was obvious that God wasn’t troubled by my weakness. And the morning wasn’t over yet! After opening God’s word to some of our regulars, when we had only about 15-20 minutes left, we went looking for a barely disabled woman we usually visit. We finally found her out in the garden where a group of 7-8 residents were clustered on benches or in wheelchairs, greedily soaking up the rays of an October sun.
Our friend, though, was preoccupied with a stray puppy the residents had adopted. Now what? Tim greeted Mihai, a new gentleman, while I said “hi” to some ladies. Soon, Tim called me to translate. It seems Mihai was trying to explain to him that he also had a Bible, a gift from his son, an Adventist. That was encouraging! I wondered where the conversation would lead.
But further down the bench, Teddy, a cheerful hulk of a child-man, transferred his attention from the puppy to us. He’d spotted our Bibles too! As I sat down on the bench next to him, he immediately pounced on mine—and by the way he was flipping through the pages it looked like it would have a short life! What to do? He looked pretty determined to keep it, and Teddy was big! But this is where God’s grace poured out; because I did something then that I would never have done in front of such a big group if I had stopped to think about it: I asked Teddy, “Want to hear a story from the Bible?! Yeah? Then give me my Bible back and I’ll tell you one!”
Immediately I had my Bible back! So I opened my mouth and out came the story of Blind Bartimaeus from Mark 10, the same story that I’d been reading to the ladies upstairs, but this time, told like I had told it to my Sunday school class. (I was so thankful for the practice!)
I talked to Teddy about what it must have been like for Bartimaeus to be blind and only use his ears for everything. How it must have been to be a beggar, hopeless and helpless. How he must have felt that day when he heard the news that Jesus was coming his way, understanding what few understood–that Jesus was the Messiah! I shared how he’d cried desperately to Jesus for healing, but how the crowd, failing to understand, had told him to shut up. Then I shared how when he cried out all the more, Jesus had called him to himself and healed him. Imagine! The first face Bartimaeus had seen was the Messiah’s! Finally I shared how the story ends, with Bartimaeus following Jesus.
The amazing thing for me was that as I began telling the story, all other conversations had stopped. Every eye was on my face, their interest captivated by the drama of the story. I guess they could relate. One lady, Felicia, kept loudly sighing at certain points and was so happy when Bartimaeus finally got healed. Afterwards Mihai mentioned that even in that home there was a blind man who has to use his ears to know what’s going on. But I talked with them about how much worse it is to be spiritually blind.
Then Teddy grabbed my Bible again. This time it took gum to get it back, and the mood was broken so we decided to move on. But passing by Felicia, we could see she still wanted to talk. She told us that she was in constant pain. And then she said, “I’ve been praying for four years for forgiveness and God won’t forgive me!” She thought that because she was still suffering, God must be holding her sin against her. Another huge opportunity to open God’s Word and share Jesus, the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
A short while later, Tim and I pulled away from the home to head back home, elated and energized by the joy of seeing what God can do. No, I had nothing to give—except my weakness. But that’s all He wanted!
“But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”2 Corinthians 12:9
His faithfulnes is my security! Love you, Gaby!
Thank you, Krista!!!!! What an awesome testimony. What a God we serve!!!