The Face of Love

Today has been a day of seeing the Face of Love in so many ways. We started the day in prayer…it has been neat to watch more people showing up for these times of prayer. We can really see God’s Spirit uniting our hearts as one team…with one purpose…one mission…to accomplish one goal…for the Only One God!
My day started out in the medical/dental clinic. Something I was greatly looking forward to doing! I was so excited to be outside the gates of the mission and amongst the Zambians. I had told one of the dentist that if he came across an easy tooth to pull…I wanted to pull it! I started cleaning instruments for them and Andy said…hey Amy…I got a couple for you. I pulled 2 teeth on this precious Zambian woman. These people amaze me…the children, the women, the men are so strong…no complaining…so grateful to be relieved of pain. I’m sorry…but my tooth would have to hurt real bad for me to go into a concrete building…sit in a school desk and lean my head up against a window sill or chalkboard tray to get a tooth pulled. In talking with these dentist…they have said that it’s strange because everything they are taught in school is to save the teeth…and here their only option is to pretty much relieve the pain by pulling the teeth. And the people are so grateful. They receive a topical and an injection…no goofy gas though….and they are so grateful. I was so humbled to be a part of it. I had the opportunity to pull another tooth too…along with just assisting the dentist…handing them tools…cleaning their trays when they were done…praying over them and the patients. At one point…one of the dentists, Katie, was struggling pretty bad trying to get a broken tooth out of this dear lady. I could tell she was becoming stressed over it….so I just stood behind her and started praying. She turned around and said…”please pray Amy”…already was! It wasn’t much longer that the tooth came out…she was so relieved and acknowledged God as helping her. That was so cool….I have been praying so much for her along with the others. I really enjoyed my time on the dental side. We were winding things down for lunch and I just hung around to see if there was any thing I could help with. Nona, one of the medical doctors, was helping a precious little 2 year old baby girl….this little girl got too close to the fire, I am sure she was near to keep warm, and had a huge burn on the top of her right foot. She was crying so hard, her momma was doing everything to comfort her…Nona looked at me and asked me to assist her by holding her foot. I grabbed some gloves and held this precious little foot…all the while…the baby was screaming the same word over and over. I asked the translator what she was saying….she was saying “stop, stop, stop!” Nona cleaned it the best she could then bandaged her up. This little baby was so brave. I absolutely loved being in there today…and I hope I get the opportunity to go in there some more this week. I love comforting people that are hurting…both physically and spiritually. It was so awesome to watch this medical team. I sat with them at lunch and they were all pretty much speechless. Nona said she has learned more in the last 2 days than she has in a year of medical school. Here…its real and raw all at the same time. These people are coming in with physical problems that they have lived with for years and are so grateful to have help…we have seen some things that I don’t know if I can even talk about them. It breaks my heart to know that so many people are hurting…I too am speechless.
I was so overwhelmed by the morning I had to go just get alone…sleep was good and refreshing. My heart was overwhelmed, my mind was racing…my body was spent. Please pray for this dental/medical team. They are seeing cases for the first time and I can’t imagine how they must feel. Please pray for their strength. God is working in their lives…and He is doing some big stuff.
Tonight God showed me His Sovereignty in a cool way….Val and I were hanging around after doing all the dishes…service had already started at 7:30 and it was now 8:30, the whole team had already finished helping and were at the tabernacle...we were waiting on Jake to finish eating…the dude eats so much…and I kept thinking…hurry up!!! We are missing the service!…finally…he was done…and we headed up to the tabernacle. Just as we left the mission gate…Joseph and a group of guys were coming through the gate. (Joseph is kinda like the Zambian foreman of the mission) These men had been out all afternoon and most of the evening trying to fix the water pump for the water that the Zambians were using. They were spent. I asked him if they had eaten…nope. So the 4 of us that were together went back and made them a meal…I saw how God orchestrated it…had Jake not of been eating slow…we wouldn’t of ran into these Zambian men. God allowed us all to be a blessing to them….after we prepared their meal…a small group of the team that had been away from the mission showed back up…and we were able to get them fed too…so, God had a plan in all of it. My impatience was only getting in the way. The other cool part about this was Jake and Chris, 2 guys from the medical/dental team, couldn’t wait to get up to the tabernacle to listen….I was planning on staying behind…but since they wanted to go…we all walked up their together! They heard the name of Jesus lifted high!!! We all did! It was good…tonight started the Adult Bible Conference. Many Zambians have begun showing up. Sarah and I walked to the back of the tabernacle…I wanted a different perspective. Most of the time, they have all the Americans sit up front…but I like to be out amongst the people. It was cool to listen from the back of the tabernacle. At one point, I looked down and saw the women in front of us all laid down ready to sleep….along with all the items they will need for this entire week. Humbling. These people have traveled from all over and are content to come, live outside for a week, to hear the Word preached. These women had buckets of cornmeal, lettuce….even their chickens were cooped up in their pen….yep, you know what’s gonna happen to them by the end of the week! Just picture a huge structure made of grass reeds and trees with straw used for the flooring…some parts are covered with grass reeds, some are open air…and picture thousands of Africans sleeping outside, they have nothing but a small blanket…some don’t even have that. They have brought what food they have to feed their families this week…and they are content. There is much singing….all through the night…I was telling Sarah…how cool would it be to go to sleep listening to someone preach the Word live. (I know some do that every week…) But for it to actually be time for bed and to listen to the Word being loudly proclaimed! Sarah and I talked about sleeping outside with them one night this week, if we are allowed to…we’ll see! I think it would be a cool experience! It was a good night!
So, I saw the Face of Love today…in the smile of a child, in the eyes of a doctor that gave glory to God for His help, in the hug of a new friend, in the unity of the Body of Christ….in so many things….in the huge moon of Africa! God is good…I am enjoying my time meeting new people…I am learning so much….I am seeking His Face as to what the next step of my life is…I am so stoked that God loves me and that His plan for my life is so huge! I am enjoying ministering with my roommates….seeing their lives changed too…seeing God stretch them and grow them too….I am blessed to have so many new brothers and sisters in Christ. God is so good!!!
One last story and I will close! So, before I left Robin, Val and I had the opportunity to go present Zambia to the children at Gateway Church VBS. During that night, we had them help us make bracelets to bring to the Zambian children. So, at the beginning of VBS…one of the ladies asked us if we knew if there were any extra beads here at the mission, they wanted to make bracelets for all the kids at VBS and didn’t have enough…so what my God did….He took the 100 bracelets that Gateway Church VBS kids had made and He multiplied them….He allowed them to be used to make 1800 bracelets for these children….how cool is that! Makes me think of that story about the 5 loaves and 2 fishes….God broke, bless and multiplied. My dear friend Stacy sent me the words to a song about this story and it had such an awesome application…God will take our lives…brake them, bless them and then multiply them so we can minister to the multitudes. So, when we find ourselves broken, which I have found myself quite often here, let’s embrace that time…so that He can bless us, and use our brokenness to reach many people that we may have never thought possible that we could reach. It’s all for His Glory!

Amy Hayweird