This is a story from an unreached Muslim People Group in rural East Asia.
[On] March 3, 2014, I wrote a letter sharing this story.
Life here continues to be hard. It is slow work tilling soil, carrying and moving rocks from the ground so that His Word can fall onto soil that He can use to grow a harvest. It is a journey with people, sharing life together and being there with them through highs and lows. Friends from the U.S. were visiting and blessed me as they sat and prayed with and for me, as I had to deliver news to one family that their 15-year-old daughter, Fifi has cancer. The medical system here does not follow up with patients like people in the west are accustomed to. This family brought their daughter to the doctor after having fevers and swollen glands off and on for 2 months. The doctor told them there was a potential of cancer and ordered a biopsy, but then it was up to the family to go back to the lab to pick up results and then schedule an appointment if follow-up was needed.
This family had already showed more initiative than most; bringing their daughter to the hospital to be checked and going through with the tests, but on multiple attempts at trying to pick up the results, they were only given the receipt of payment, thinking these were the results. So last week, the two national nurses who work with me, Ann and Mar had to go to the hospital to make an appointment for another patient, they picked up the results. We had been hoping for the best-case scenario of a bad infection, but the biopsy showed it was an aggressive form of cancer.
...This is not news anyone ever wants to tell someone, especially when the recipient does not know the hope of Christ, but also in my experience here, a family receiving such news may become hysterical and even faint. This is where I saw the prayers of my visiting friends, and those of you who were also praying, being answered.
That morning on the car ride to the village, God opened wide the doors to share what He had shown me that very morning in my quiet time. Mar, the national nurse who is not yet a believer, shared about a nightmare she had relating to the news we were giving and that this was then happening to her dad, who was not yet right with God. Ann, the national nurse who is a believer, read Romans 5:1-5 out loud for me since I was driving and then I was able to talk about how God had used it to remind me of His unmerited hope, what His hope looks like, and how I desire for this family to experience hope in God through this time. I would not have imagined I could be so direct in sharing, but since I was sharing how God was using this in my life, it just flowed and could not be argued. Mar listened intently and answered in a way she has never answered before, applying parts of this message to her life.
God’ s hand of peace was evident over the family as they received the news quite stoically, but also with concern and the possibility of following through with medical care if the shaman was not effective within 2 weeks. Even this is a miracle.
Well, many shamans later and a year after they said they would seek medical treatment, they have. Fifi who is now 16 has undergone chemotherapy and is currently having radiation. On this last visit Maria, a Dutch nurse who is now going to the village, said that the cancer is no longer detectable with palpation. Please pray for Fifi and her family that they will see God at work. Please pray for Maria as she is now working with Mar in the village and is the only believer going to the village with the health program. Pray that God will open opportunities for her to share the Good News and pray for and with villagers and Mar. Maria has been on the team for a year now after returning from a short- term trip when I had first started in the village.
Pray for Mar that she will remember what I shared in the car with her that morning of bringing the bad news. Pray that she would hear Jesus’ Good News in such a way that she will understand it and turn to Him for Salvation.
I am so proud of Mar. She is doing a great job, despite missing her co-workers Ann and Rina, another national believer who worked with the health program. Ann received high honors in being offered a civil servant job as a nurse that gives her a good income, benefits from the government, and stations her in another area among a people group that has been very hard to reach. Rina was blessed with a husband and is now expecting her first child, so she also is no longer working. That left us with a gap in believers going to the village until Maria was able to start going regularly.
Mar connects so well with the people in the village. She stepped up to running the village health program herself and now has Maria joining her. Mar was the one who was finally able to convince Fifi’s family to seek medical help and assisted them through the process of obtaining government aid for her treatment and arranged transportation so Fifi could get to the hospital for her treatments. Pray that Mar will soon believe in Jesus and connect people not only to healthcare but to Jesus and His Word.
As I reread my old prayer letter, God strengthened my hope in Him for what He has for the village. Especially in taking this extended leave, I was not sure what would happen to the work in the village, or if it would even still be going on, but it is God who started the work there, and He is the One who will bring it to completion. It is awesome to see how He is at work, and being a further distance in regards to time and space can sometimes give a fuller perspective. As I reflect, it is also strengthening for my own walk with the Lord to see the many blessings He has brought in the last year and the rest and restoration that He has given to me.
Please pray for Mar, Fifi, the village—and other unreached Muslim peoples in East Asia.
[On] March 3, 2014, I wrote a letter sharing this story.
Life here continues to be hard. It is slow work tilling soil, carrying and moving rocks from the ground so that His Word can fall onto soil that He can use to grow a harvest. It is a journey with people, sharing life together and being there with them through highs and lows. Friends from the U.S. were visiting and blessed me as they sat and prayed with and for me, as I had to deliver news to one family that their 15-year-old daughter, Fifi has cancer. The medical system here does not follow up with patients like people in the west are accustomed to. This family brought their daughter to the doctor after having fevers and swollen glands off and on for 2 months. The doctor told them there was a potential of cancer and ordered a biopsy, but then it was up to the family to go back to the lab to pick up results and then schedule an appointment if follow-up was needed.
This family had already showed more initiative than most; bringing their daughter to the hospital to be checked and going through with the tests, but on multiple attempts at trying to pick up the results, they were only given the receipt of payment, thinking these were the results. So last week, the two national nurses who work with me, Ann and Mar had to go to the hospital to make an appointment for another patient, they picked up the results. We had been hoping for the best-case scenario of a bad infection, but the biopsy showed it was an aggressive form of cancer.
...This is not news anyone ever wants to tell someone, especially when the recipient does not know the hope of Christ, but also in my experience here, a family receiving such news may become hysterical and even faint. This is where I saw the prayers of my visiting friends, and those of you who were also praying, being answered.
That morning on the car ride to the village, God opened wide the doors to share what He had shown me that very morning in my quiet time. Mar, the national nurse who is not yet a believer, shared about a nightmare she had relating to the news we were giving and that this was then happening to her dad, who was not yet right with God. Ann, the national nurse who is a believer, read Romans 5:1-5 out loud for me since I was driving and then I was able to talk about how God had used it to remind me of His unmerited hope, what His hope looks like, and how I desire for this family to experience hope in God through this time. I would not have imagined I could be so direct in sharing, but since I was sharing how God was using this in my life, it just flowed and could not be argued. Mar listened intently and answered in a way she has never answered before, applying parts of this message to her life.
God’ s hand of peace was evident over the family as they received the news quite stoically, but also with concern and the possibility of following through with medical care if the shaman was not effective within 2 weeks. Even this is a miracle.
Well, many shamans later and a year after they said they would seek medical treatment, they have. Fifi who is now 16 has undergone chemotherapy and is currently having radiation. On this last visit Maria, a Dutch nurse who is now going to the village, said that the cancer is no longer detectable with palpation. Please pray for Fifi and her family that they will see God at work. Please pray for Maria as she is now working with Mar in the village and is the only believer going to the village with the health program. Pray that God will open opportunities for her to share the Good News and pray for and with villagers and Mar. Maria has been on the team for a year now after returning from a short- term trip when I had first started in the village.
Pray for Mar that she will remember what I shared in the car with her that morning of bringing the bad news. Pray that she would hear Jesus’ Good News in such a way that she will understand it and turn to Him for Salvation.
I am so proud of Mar. She is doing a great job, despite missing her co-workers Ann and Rina, another national believer who worked with the health program. Ann received high honors in being offered a civil servant job as a nurse that gives her a good income, benefits from the government, and stations her in another area among a people group that has been very hard to reach. Rina was blessed with a husband and is now expecting her first child, so she also is no longer working. That left us with a gap in believers going to the village until Maria was able to start going regularly.
Mar connects so well with the people in the village. She stepped up to running the village health program herself and now has Maria joining her. Mar was the one who was finally able to convince Fifi’s family to seek medical help and assisted them through the process of obtaining government aid for her treatment and arranged transportation so Fifi could get to the hospital for her treatments. Pray that Mar will soon believe in Jesus and connect people not only to healthcare but to Jesus and His Word.
As I reread my old prayer letter, God strengthened my hope in Him for what He has for the village. Especially in taking this extended leave, I was not sure what would happen to the work in the village, or if it would even still be going on, but it is God who started the work there, and He is the One who will bring it to completion. It is awesome to see how He is at work, and being a further distance in regards to time and space can sometimes give a fuller perspective. As I reflect, it is also strengthening for my own walk with the Lord to see the many blessings He has brought in the last year and the rest and restoration that He has given to me.
Please pray for Mar, Fifi, the village—and other unreached Muslim peoples in East Asia.
