"There I was, on my knees. You might be thinking I was a church girl praying. I, for sure, wasn't a church girl and was for sure not praying. I wish I could tell you something exciting, but I was just cleaning my dirty refrigerator, an ordinary, dreaded duty. And what happened while there will never be put into words or fully grasped for it went into the deep--too deep for words.
"The sun was beginning to set, and soon it would be dark like you couldn't imagine. This is the third world. No electricity means blackness, not darkness. Until you experience it, you can't imagine it. We got off the bus and moved toward the entrance. There was a pickup truck blocking our way. I saw lots of people in the bed of the truck. I told Dr. Polo to stop and that we needed to help them. Because it was getting dark quickly, we couldn't see very well. Dr. Polo put his hand on my shoulder and told me they were all dead.
I thought to myself, How could this be?"
"Where I was, you want to make sure you have a passport on your body. We had a game of tug-of-war. He looked at me as a woman of no value and took his rifle, lifted it, and pointed it at my head... I knew this was not going to be a good day."
"After a couple of rounds of this, I thought to myself, Oh no! I lifted her sheet, and sure enough, she had a big enough bump to know there was a baby in there. She was bleeding a lot. It was now clear what was happening... We made it to the bathroom. She sat down, and her contractions were steady and very strong at this point. My fear became her reality. She wanted to return to bed. We walked back--no contractions. She lay down, turned toward the wall, and refused any interaction."
"She turned her head to look at me. I had been looking down. Her hand reached up and took hold of mine. My eyes moved up her body. Our eyes met. She looked at me, but half of her face was missing. At this point I removed myself from the reality I was in. The mind is only capable of so much."
"The baby wasn't responding to the bottle. I saw a piece of cloth lying in the dirt. I took the baby from my daughter and swaddled him tight. I took the baby to his mother. She didn't want to take him. I sat next to her and placed him close to her, encouraging him to nurse. Mom didn't flinch. Our eyes met. I took her arms and wrapped them around her son so she could hold him close. I then put my arm around her and held her close. Time stood still, and eventually, I stood up, looked deep into her eyes, and kissed her forehead. It was now time to hold my sweet, brave daughter as we walked back home down that dirt road."
A life with Christ is to humbly say, "Yes, Lord, send me" and mean it. It is to accept inconvenient invitations and go on assignments wherever He sends us. It means to go frightened with confidence and believe.
Time waits for no one. God bids us to join Him as he writes His story in and through each of us.
What is your story?