On my last post, I said I would expand on the story of Paul. Now I want to warn you, if you cry easily, you might want to have some Kleenex nearby. This is a story of a miracle; a story of how God is daily working in the hearts everywhere.
The day started off pretty normal, who am I kidding, there's no such thing as a normal day in Uganda. I guess it's better to say, the day started off as another new adventure. Our plan was to visit our friend's church in the village of Kidoko, feed the orphans there, and help with Awanas. We attended church, got to witness two baby dedications, help teach Sunday school, see beautiful children being fed, and watch the kids get so much joy from participating in the games of Awanas. So far, everything was going as planned. We decided to set up a wound clinic on the front porch of the Pastor's house to do basic treatment of wounds. Right as we were finishing up, the pastor and another man came to us asking if we'd be willing to work on the wound of an older man. They told us he wasn't able to walk because the wound on his leg was too large and too painful. We decided we'd go check it out and see what we could do for him.
Now keep in mind that none of us are have ever been trained medically to take care of these wounds. We were basically taking the knowledge we had gained as kids when we got cuts and scrapes. Our supplies were hand wipes, half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, quite a few tubes of neosporin, some gauze, some band aids, and some tape. We were running low on most of our supplies and didn't know if we would have enough to help this man. But we decided that some help is better than no help and got ready for another new adventure. We Afripacked into our little five seater car and drove to this man's house. When we arrived, we didn't know what to expect. We got out of the car and started walking to our new "patient". Once we were about ten feet away, the smells of his wound penetrated my nose. I instantly froze. God, what have we gotten ourselves into. I started to panic. I got down on my knees and introduced myself to this very old, very skinny, very frail man. His name is Paul. Paul began unwrapping this tattered, dirty rag off of his wound. The more he uncovered, the more the smell intensified. Lord, let me be your hands. Give me Your strength to continue on and get past the smell. The wound was uncovered and just looking at it made my stomach queasy. Right away we got to work. I was in charge of cleaning and bandaging the wound, while Taylor was my assistant, handing me what I needed. Kayla was put in charge of leading Paul to Christ, while Keesha began to pray.
As Kayla began to share the love of Jesus with Paul the crowd of Ugandans around us began to laugh. Keesha noticed right away and turned to the local pastor, Charles, to ask why. I was completely oblivious to the laughing and continued on with the task at hand. Keesha and Charles stepped off to the side so that Charles could share Paul's story with Keesha.
This is Paul's story...
Paul used to be a very rich man. He had a beautiful wife, lived in the city and had everything he wanted. Until his whole world was flipped upside down. His wife divorced him and he lost his house and all his money. He became an alcoholic and a chain smoker Paul went out into the village and decided to hang himself. The man that came to us and asked us to take care of his wound found him, cut him down and has been his caretaker for the past four years. Paul had given up and was sick of life. He didn't want to go on any longer. He even stopped bathing because he truly didn't care about taking care of himself. Satan had gotten a hold of Paul and pulled him down to his weakest point, BUT God had a different plan for him. When the church of Kidoko was planted, the team that started it tried sharing the Gospel with Paul. Over and over again they would come to Paul and share just a little bit more of God's love with him every time. Paul didn't care. Paul refused God's love every single time. He told them, "I know you think God's real but He's not. I don't want to live in heaven, I want to go to hell when I die. I choose hell. You will never get me to change my mind." His heart was hardened. Little did Paul know, every single time a person shared with him, a seed was planted, and his heart was slowly beginning soften.
Once Charles was done sharing Paul's story with Keesha, Keesha immediately asked if they could pray together for Paul. They prayed. They prayed that Paul's heart would be open and willing. They prayed that Paul would see God's love and want to change. They prayed that God would do a mighty work in Paul's life. And that's exactly what God did.
Keesha and Charles joined us again, and as they walked up to the crowd of people, they heard Kayla leading Paul in the sinners prayer. Paul was repenting and turning his life over to God. Yesu Asimiwe! (Praise Jesus!) We explained to Paul that now he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. He had to stop drinking and he had to stop smoking. That part of his life was done and over with. We told him that his body was a temple of God's and that he needs to start treating his body that way. We explained to him that when he accepted Christ as his Savior, he was cleansed from the inside and now he needs to be cleansed on the outside. So we boiled some water and he went behind the house to bathe himself. After four years of not bathing, he realized that needed to change. He realized he needed to respect his body because it is not his but God's. He made a complete transformation in a matter of minutes because of the awesome power of God's love. When he finished bathing, we cleaned the wound once more, wrapped it in gauze and prayed over his new relationship with Christ.
We were able to return two more times to help re bandage and re clean his wound. On our last visit, I told him that God is the one who healed his wound and the one who healed his heart. I told him the first place he needed go when he was able to walk was the church to give thanks to God for His healing power and love shown to him.
His life has been forever changed. He no longer drinks. He no longer smokes. His leg is fully healed and he is able to walk again.
God performed a miracle right before my eyes. He showed me His love, His grace, and His power to heal.
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