Sent by the I AM

The first day I was in clinic and left very discouraged, Karen Lydick (workteam leader for Lifeline) encouraged me by saying that even if I only end up helping one of the people that I saw that day, it would be worth it. Let me tell you, PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I saw a woman for the third time on Monday named Passianna. She is a beautiful 55-60 year old lady (it’s common in Haiti to not know your birthday or exactly how old you are). She has been having right should pain and decreased range of motion. She is so cute because we play “my games” in therapy where I have her reach for cones that I’m holding in various positions so that she has to move her shoulder in all directions (thanks GL Rehab girls at home for teaching me so much!), and she always looks at me and giggles before she reaches for the next cone. She thinks it’s so much fun. In church services the Haitian people frequently raise their hands and wave them in the air and say things like, “Meci Jezi” which means thank you Jesus. So in therapy, I told Passianna that she needs to be able to raise her arms and wave her hands and say “Meci Jezi” all the time because it’s good therapy and God will like to hear it too. So she raised both arms as high as she could and repeated “Meci Jezi” multiple times. After that we were done with therapy so I asked her what I could pray with her for before she left. She said, “Pray for my shoulder pain and that I can be baptized.” Whoa!!! Let’s talk about that! I thought she was already a Christian because of past conversations. We talked for 20 minutes and I was able to tell her all about Jesus and God’s love for us, and how we can accept Jesus into our lives. When she said she wanted to ask Jesus into her life, I had her pray repeating after me. It was really neat because I would pray a phrase, my translator would say it, and then she would repeat him. Then I told her she had to come find me at church on Sunday because I would be looking for her, and then I would introduce her to Pastor Luc, and she agreed.

It was such an amazing opportunity, and something that I was not expecting, but it was a great reminder to me of why I am here- not just in Haiti but in this world. It’s to share the love of Christ with everyone in hopes that those who don’t know Jesus may find the richness of living life in Him so that eternity can be spent with Him in heaven. I know that God is using me here to bless each patient I have seen, and sharing Christ’s love with them is important, but this is the ultimate reason for everything I do- so that people who don’t know Christ may desire to know Him personally because they’ve experienced His love. When I first started thinking about wanting to do physical therapy, it was secondary to my first love of mission work and Haiti. I wanted to combine the two. but I didn’t know how God would ever do that. I think He showed me this week.

(Below are 2 pictures of Passianna and me doing our therapy on Monday!)