Amai Goliath

http://utmost.org/my-life’s-spiritual-honor-and-duty

Since I began my overseas life, I have had family members and friends ask me why it is I go so far when there are people nearby at home that could use the skills that I have been gifted from God.  And I always had difficulty explaining my reasons......probably because I felt they were, primarily, selfish. I love the life that I have lived overseas....and I have always believed that when you are following the Lord....and looking for His leading in all that you do, you are not going to have an uninteresting life.  God, I believe, does not want His children to be dour and pious......in fact He spoke against this throughout His time on earth.  Now I do not believe that we can expect fun, fun, fun......without responsibility......that too is clearly spoken against.....but, if we are willing to step out in faith......the littlest faith that most of us have......and give whatever we are with the gifts we have had developed in us.......we can make a difference for the Kingdom of God.

When I reflect on someone who has given all they have to serving God......I think of the leprosy patient staff at the Leprosy Center in Pleiku, Vietnam.  I am sad that I cannot remember their names and don't have my Jarai language Bible with me to refer to.  I'm believe that if I saw their names, I might remember.

The one I am thinking about today is a young man that worked in our surgery room.  He would clean and care for the equipment and also help in other places in the center.  He had the sweetest face and smiled all the time.  He joined the other staff for the nursing classes I taught.

Now you must realize that these people, the ethnic minority in the central highlands of Vietnam were very simple.  They lived simple lives and were very trusting.  One of the staff.....was so impressed with the report that the Viet Cong were so strong they only needed one bowl of rice a day and could fight for freedom.  He believed this and one day ran away to fight with them.  He was so young, unmarried and so limited because of his disease process.....leprosy.  Several months later his coworker and friend found that he had been killed.....and we went to the graveside service.  We were all so sad.   But this was not the story I wanted to relate today......

The young man who worked in the surgery room tried so hard to learn what I was trying to teach.....
simple nursing assessment.  You need to remember that with leprosy, these staff could not check a pulse like we normally would in nursing......they had no feeling in their fingers.  So we worked out ways to listen always with a stethoscope.....practical things like this.  Learning breath sounds was another challenge.....but things like malaria or ulcers.....they knew so much and were so competent to care for the patients.  I remember watching this young man and others in our foot care room......it was set up like an amphitheater with the staff member at the bottom and the patients soaking their feet in basins above him and he would go from one to another trimming off the dead skin or callouses with a razor blade and then bandaging their feet with such ability...... It was amazing to see.....and with tenderness....and with no feeling in his fingers as he worked......and a smile on his face.  Many times this room was foul smelling due to the ulcers but his smile remained.

We had a period of fasting and praying at lunch.  It was such a blessing.  By this time I could understand a significant amount of what the staff said......we knew how to hear what the other was saying since we spent so much time together.

Now my name, Margaret, was not easy for the Jarai to remember.  Each of them knew each others family and the names of all their children.  When you had your first child your name was changed to the father/mother of and your eldest child's name.  I was called older sister....Amai.  But the Margaret part was giving such a problem for this young man.  One day when he had a cold the pharmacist gave him some Sucrets...the throat lozenges.  He came to me and told me he would begin to call me Amai Sucret.....it was almost the same as Margaret.  I found it amusing and endearing.  I felt like I was being accepted.

So we had this week of fasting and prayer and this young man was praying for me.  And as he began to pray he said, I am praying for Amai Sucret.....well, this caused me to giggle......and then later in the prayer he called me.....Amai Goliath......Goliath was a giant in the Bible that went to battle with David.  I looked up at him and his eyes were closed and he was smiling and so sincere.....he wasn't making a joke at all..... He explained to me afterwards that I was so tall compared to him that he thought of me as a giant.  His prayer was so sincere....thanking God that I was there with them.....asking for protection for me and the other nurses......and it touched my heart then and does as I remember today.  It makes me smile.

My time in Pleiku was so short......but I was blessed over and over to live among these people that had nothing......their land was stolen from them, they were ostracized by their neighbors......they had a life long illness that was disfiguring.....and they were happy and loving and willing to accept others into their lives with an open heart and they reached out to not just those with leprosy but anyone to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus......  I learned from them what Oswald Chambers wrote about when he said, "I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel of Jesus; I am free only that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.” I Corinthians 6:19-20.  "That is the characteristic of a Christian’s life once this level of spiritual honor and duty becomes real. Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus".