Meet Me by the River

Yesterday, our first stop was at St. Catherine Hall School. We were given the opportunity to witness to the children there during their morning devotion. We used the 30 minutes we had to sing a few songs like "Lord I lift your name on High" , present a short skit and I had the chance to give a short testimony. Phil and pastor Sharpe then closed with a few words and a prayers and we were off to our next engagement. We went back to the Westgate Hills construction site and moved the work along a bit. After a few hours of work, we headed back to Auntie Dally's to rest and wash up before going to our most challenging engagement. Our destination was St. James infirmary, an establishment devoted to taking care of the most sick and diseased.

The prospect of having to look at misery in the face was daunting but we were glad for the opportunity we would get. Once there, it was tough to deal with the state of the health of a lot of the people we saw. But no matter how troubling their physical ailments, it never took away from the fact that they were human beings just like us who needed affection and the love of Jesus. Christ helped us to see beyond the physical veil that the world sets up to push us away from the afflicted. So we mingled with the people laying on the beds or sitting o the benches outside with them. We talked to them, read verses to them and sang with them all while praying that what we did would impact their souls in some way.

It was during that time that I realized how simple it was to show Jesus' love to people. Many of us all have this sort of missionary fantasy about how our work should have a spectacular impact on the people we encounter but that isn't true. We were there for an hour or two. How could we expect to do in a short period of time what God takes a lifetime to do? We couldn't. Rather, by the small actions of love we made, we partook in the greater work of salvation that Christ was doing.

At night, as we debriefed on the beach, we worshipped together and we discussed the day. For most of us, visiting the sick had a profound impact on teaching us to love others.
I'll leave you with an encouraging conversation I had with a man at the infirmary. After having played a song for him he looked at me and said: Have you heard of the song "Shall we gather at the River", referring to the old hymn calling Christians to meet in heaven. I said I knew of it to which he replied with a big smile: "I'll meet you by the river."