Saturday AM:
At breakfast we began our day reflecting briefly upon Jesus’ words regarding “the least of these” my brothers and sisters (Matthew 25:34-40). This passage was apropos: soon we were to care for those, who, even within an impoverished setting, are among the least of the least. Responding to their needs, a local church converts their sanctuary space into a clinic, where doctors seek to address the medical needs of those who have neither the opportunity nor the means to receive medical attention.
As we concluded our breakfast, we were encouraged to see the face of Jesus in the lives of those served by the clinic.
When we drove up to the church building, we saw approximately two hundred, mostly women and children, seated upon benches within the shade of a large tree. However, not all knew shade: those seated in the first two rows, even at 8:30am, felt the intensity of the mid-winter sun. Patiently they sat, and patient they remained throughout the morning. By 9am the clinic staff of approximately thirty: ten Zionsville Americans, twenty-five Ugandans, and five doctors had received their instructions and assigned stations.
By groups of ten, those seeking care first received prayerful words of encouragement, followed by a simple triage process, the meeting with a doctor, and eventually the fulfilling of a prescription. Moving chair-by-chair through the stations, by 1:30pm the two hundred had received attention and a simple lunch of bananas, chipatis, and water.
In my view, this experience mirrored Jesus’ words to those of Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
That afternoon, the word on the village road was very positive: those who had sought aid were satisfied. Of course, although thankful, some of us wondered: What of the infant rushed to the front, listless and unresponsive? or, What of the child, whose blood pressure was sky high?
Saturday PM:
With further reflection, I ended the day sensing that I had regained a further insight into Jesus’ feeding the thousands: “He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). May we do no less.
Faithfully,
Stan
Ps. In my next blog I hope to share regarding Sunday’s worship and the opening of Monday’s conference for pastors.