Loving God as a volunteer medical
missionary
by Debbie M. Boykin
I do not ever
remember a time in which my sister, an identical twin, and I did not know
Jesus. I remember those precious paintings on my Sunday school wall of a
smiling Jesus gathering and holding children on his lap or carrying the lost
lamb on His shoulders as He brought it back to the fold. They left an
indelible imprint on my heart.
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I was an
exuberant child of God. My first hymn was “To God Be the Glory” -
taught by my mother to my sister and me when we were only two. Our
Sunday school teacher even had to call my mother to express her joy
at our exuberance, but could she please ask us to refrain from
singing and dancing on the tables, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam”?
Don’t you wish everybody knew the joy of being a child of God?
My baptism was at
age 8 but was such a natural progression of where my heart had been
all along, in my mind it was just a formality…I had been His for
much longer. My eyes well up and throat gets tight just thinking of
the ones who do not know Him…really KNOW Him. What a gift to have
had this from the very beginning.
1 John 4:13 says;
“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us
his spirit.” I knew this first hand when at age 13, God laid His
hand on my face during a small youth prayer group. I thought, “Wow,
so this is what they mean by the Holy Spirit”. This was to be the
first of many affirmations from my Lord that I was His and I was
following Him. My young adult years flew by with many gifts from
God, not the least of which was a kind and God-fearing husband and
two wonderful girls who love and follow God, now ages 20 and 15.
| He
does answer prayers at lightening speed and could He continue to do
so. |
Ten years
ago, while my mother was in her last stages of cancer and knowing
the empty spot in my heart this absence would cause, I was lifting
my petitions up to the Father asking Him to fill this hole that
would be left with my mother’s passing. She had been my first
teacher, mentor and model of what a Christ follower was all about.
In the middle of this prayer an announcement was made in church of a
need for a nurse to go to Honduras with a medical team led by Harold
Hurst, a retired missionary who he and his wife, Alice had devoted
their lives. This truly was the quickest answered prayer I had ever
received and still to this day remind God on occasion how He does
answer prayers at lightening speed and could He continue to do so.
His answer is always “yes… no… or wait a while.” So thus began my
journey with God on using my talents in medical missions. |
Harold began mentoring
me and obviously saw something in me long before I recognized it in myself
when he said I would be leading medical teams for God one day. I thought,
“What an incredible thing to say. I wonder where he is getting this
information? Surely not I. I cannot do that, I am not able.” Then God ever
so graciously said, “YOU are not, but I am.” The Lord reminded me that day
and ever since; “I have chosen you…do not fear…I will strengthen you and
uphold you in my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)
From
that day forward I cannot begin to tell you of all the things He has shown
me and that I have been privileged to do for Him. It has been and still is
like being on an adventure with God. I have been to Honduras now nine times
and have seen His hand in working with indigenous Indian groups and using us
as His instruments. I have watched children climbing mountains singing,
“Jesus loves me this I know” when once they did not know who Jesus was. I
have seen people come to know Christ when worshiping under a lean-to and our
pews were a wood pile stacked for cooking use. I have seen His miracles in
Kenya when He provided medicines and multiplied them like the fishes and the
loaves. I’ve seen the Holy Spirit surround an angry and dark place and peace
prevail in a blink of an eye in Indonesia. I rejoice seeing ones previously
warped by evil come to life when the evil one has departed their tortured
bodies and minds. I LOVE seeing our Muslim brothers and sisters look at us
through different eyes after watching us ever so closely for days. I have
felt the Holy Spirit envelop a room in which scripture was being poured on a
Druze believer in Jordan and his eyes opened to the Truth. We now have 9
families of believers in this town in which zero believers existed last year
at this time. A miracle when you think that these families will be counted
as “lost” to their families and community and will be persecuted for their
belief in Jesus Christ.
| We all have
our Samaria. Where is yours? What is He graciously telling you? I
have been on an adventure with God since my memories began. What a
privilege…what a gift. The glory of the Lord rises upon us all. It
is time for our hearts to throb and swell with joy! I am still a
sunbeam for Him after all these years. To God be the glory, great
things He hath done. |
I
ve seen the Holy Spirit surround an angry and dark place and peace
prevail in a blink of an eye in Indonesia.
|
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