I met a woman named Patrice on Wednesday. We did our first house visits and I didnt know what to expect so I was nervous the whole way we walked to her house. Instantly you can see that her family has desperate needs. Four people live in a two room house, if you can even call it a house, its closer to being a shack than a house. The most obvious was the illness that plagues that family. Patrice suffered from a stroke four years ago and she has not been able to walk since, she is only in her 30s. The hardest to see was her son Wallice. He suffers from some type of brain degenerative disorder and is more or less in a vegatative state. I was shocked when they told me he was 11 years old, he is about the size of a 4 year old. Patrice´s mother takes care of them both and Patrices other son who is a student at the school that we worked with this week.
We worshipped with her and had a Bible study with her and the whole time she was smiling. She seemed thrilled that we were there to worship with her. She was also so interested in the Bible study, adding what she thought and soaking up every word that the pastor said. The whole time we were worshiping and talking I was thinking how my heart goes out to this woman and her son. How much I wanted to do more for her than just pray and worship. I have loved working with the kids this past week, but my heart goes out to people who are ill and sick, thats where my soft spot is. And while I was thinking about all this I felt that she should know what I was feeling.
So I did. I had only a vague idea of what I really wanted to say other than I wanted her to know that I loved her. But I got up off my chair and sat on her bed next to her and I told her how much I already cared about her, about how amazing I thought she was for finding reasons to praise God even though she can´t walk and she has to see son so ill everyday. I told her that Im going to school to become a nurse right now and how being with her has confirmed even more that thats what I want to do with my life.
Now I knew I was going to struggle to keep my composure but I wasnt expecting her to start crying and that just made it so much harder. We had talked about faith during our Bible study so I asked that we all pray for her and Wallice´s healing. That if it was God´s will he would heal them both.
I definately know that God was there during that visit. It was God that brought me there, and it was certainly God who gave me those words. I feel that God brought me there at that time to just love on her. It was also exactly what I needed too. Working at the school has been awesome but it has also been tiring and being able to love on Patrice just filled me up with love too. This visit has probably been one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. So I pray that God will continue to bring Patrices in my path while Im in Brazil.
“Cat your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22
