Eight years I ago joined my husband in his medical mission in Honduras as part of the prayer team, hoping to change the world in the name of Jesus!
Instead, partway through my first trip, I found myself in tears.
We were spending that day at a women’s cancer ward. I prayed with a young mother with ovarian cancer who worried that she would die there without ever seeing her two children again. In the next bed lay a young woman with a massive abdominal tumor, whose pimp dropped her off with just the clothes on her back. A son asked me to pray with his mom who suffered with lung cancer, laboring to take each breath. A family asked me to pray with their mom behind the death screen in her last hours. The needs were overwhelming. I realized the true inadequacy of my own prayer life. I could not do much to change any of these needs.
So why do I continue to go?
The people. On one trip, we visited the outpatient pediatric cancer ward. One of my prayer partners spotted a little 4 year old boy who lost one leg to cancer. Using his walker, he ran around the ward with a big smile. My fellow worker was about to ask if she could pray for him when this little boy took his hands off his walker and raised them in the air. Balancing on one foot, he prayed the Lord’s Prayer for her.
“Preacher boy” brought her to tears.
Meanwhile, I was inside the playroom with a group of children awaiting treatment. With my broken Spanish, I asked the children about the colors of the crayons and how old they were. I remembered a children’s song in Spanish, and one child attempted to sing it with me. A young dad with his two-year-old daughter tried to help as much as he could. We smiled and laughed as we tried to communicate. When the translator returned a few minutes later, I asked to speak to the young dad who has been so helpful. His daughter had been diagnosed with a brain tumor a year ago. Although now cancer free, they returned for follow-up treatments to insure the cancer doesn’t reoccur and to encourage other patients.
God was at work in this cancer ward, and I thanked Him for allowing me to participate.
The Honduran partners we have worked with over my many trips amaze me as well. I have enjoyed getting to know them and becoming familiar with their personalities. One man is always ready with a corny joke to make us smile. He seems to effortlessly guide us through customs each time we arrive.
I admire the preacher who teaches Calculus at the school we visit. He also delivers food baskets to a woman on the mountain whose husband recently lost his job. The teachers with our group bring the woman a word of encouragement from the scriptures. Then they ask us to pray. This preacher and his teachers will still be working when we return home.
I love the woman who provides our sandwiches and snacks and stays with our supplies at the hospital. She is so friendly and gracious. She works tirelessly behind the scenes to pave the way for us and to create an atmosphere where the employees of the hospital are glad to see us.
I smile every time I remember the pastor who serves as our translator on the prayer team. He fills up the room when he enters it, joking with the patients. He often breaks into song, using one of the Dum Dums we hand out as a microphone.
To watch this shepherd in action inspires me.
On the latest trip God introduced me to several patients who were so grateful to God despite their circumstances. We approached one woman who grabbed our hands and explained how God had seen her through cancer, and he would see her through this medical trial as well. She prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and praise for her creator. She then began to pray over us, thanking God for us and praying for our protection and strength. Tears ran down my face. She was not the only one who demonstrated this kind of joy in the Lord. Although many of these patients were not materially blessed, God has blessed them with many more spiritual blessings .
Why do I serve on the prayer team?
Is it so I can change the world? No. I’ve discovered that is God’s job. But I feel God’s calling and presence there. I see him working in the lives of these Honduran people, and I want to be a part of what God is doing there.
Also, the trips make me reflect on my own life here in the states. Am I serving God wholeheartedly like friends and fellow believers we serve with in Honduras? Do I have the joy of the Lord despite my circumstances? My prayer life is not nearly as lifeless as it was on that first trip. I’ve looked for ways to serve others in my own community.
I haven’t changed Honduras. God used Honduras to change me.
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