A Guide to Short-Term Missions by Greene H. Leon;

Author:Greene, H. Leon; [Greene, H. Leon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2012-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

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You will see many things on a mission trip that can be explained and handled only by God. The dangers are real, and the needs are overwhelming. We must never abandon caution, but foremost in our minds must be our belief that God is in control.

I deal with medical issues, while God deals with me. In Mexico City in 1988, the pastor wanted me to examine the mother of one of his church members. She had been sick for a long time, and he wanted our team to visit her in her home and treat her. Upon arrival at the home, we were greeted by a rotten stench that made walking through the front door difficult. In a back room of this small home lay a woman in her sixties who was chronically ill and unable to sit or stand.

When we examined her, we discovered bedsores—decubitus ulcers—so chronic and large that they had totally replaced her buttocks and the upper parts of the backs of her thighs. Even in the United States this condition would have been a two or three year task for an expert team of plastic surgeons, infectious disease specialists, geriatricians, nutritionists, burn therapists, physical therapists, and counselors, not to mention the time needed for routine medical and nursing care. And we were expected to cure her in the five minutes we had been allotted in our schedule of church meetings and evangelistic outreaches. So we had to turn it all over to God in prayer. There was nothing else we could do, yet it was the best we could do. God is in control.

In the Philippines in 1987, we asked a local doctor if there was anything he especially needed. He said that he would think about it and get back to us the next day. When we met the next day, he had a list that included everything from medicines to an ambulance to a new hospital. He had great expectations from the rich North Americans, but we could not deliver. So we had to turn it all over to God in prayer. Again, nothing else we could do, yet it was the best we could do. God is in control.

In Guatemala we were ministering to villagers in the hills, and, as is common, we were asked to go into a hut where a little girl was sick. We encountered a small girl who was about six years old and totally paralyzed from the waist down. Her large brown eyes looked trustingly up toward us, and she had no fear at all of the weird strangers in her midst. She needed many diagnostic tests, but we had none. She needed physical therapy, but we could offer none. She might need surgery, but we could perform none. But she also needed prayer, and we had that available. So we turned it all over to God in prayer. There was nothing else we could do, yet it was the best we could do. God is in control.

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