Pain of Change

Mark's Reflections after a Mercy Ships screening

For those not in the know, Mercy ships general screening is something our organization does at the beginning of every field service.  It is usually a single day event where people are told they are to be selected for free surgeries.  The poorest of the poor show up.  Not to say they are all materially poor, but they are all poor in the sense that they are searching and hoping for healing they can not provide themselves.  I want to start with a story, a story about a man, a man whose name I don't know.

Photos courtesy of Mercy Ships photographers

This man stood in the line above all day to see if our ship could help him.  Behind that bandana is a physical disfigurement that he refuses to show this world and for good reason.  Most of us would not want to see it.  I want to look past the disfigurement as God looks past the disfigurement of us all.  Looking into this man's eyes I can see a weariness.  I will tell you I saw this man later, when his bandana had been removed and his shame was visible to the whole world.  The look in his eye changed from weary to hopeful when another man, a healer, touched him.  His hope was in man and that is a sad hope indeed.  I wish I could tell you this story has a happy ending, but this is a true story, a biblical story.  I do not believe our ship will be able to physically help this man, though I do not know for sure.  His physical condition will end his physical existence.  The only happiness I can offer is a hope, a hope that we share with this man.  Our hope is that we, the eternally poor, can receive a healing that we can not provide for ourselves.  Jesus Christ

I pray for the man above daily and I lament that I did not even get to know his name, but God knows his name.  God knows his pain.  I encourage you to pray for this man also.  The prayers of the righteous have power.  God's presence in Guinea has the power to save.  Pray for the harvest and the harvesters.

Our faith is a faith of hope, so I want to leave you with some encouraging images.  The day was not all pain and suffering.  There was joy and beauty in the Spirit, even here, among the disfigured poor. Many here will be healed by our ship.  Many will put off physical pain and suffering for a while longer and that should be celebrated as well.

Photos from Guinea General Screening.  Courtesy of Mercy Ships photographers

I will leave you with one last thought.  We are all the disfigured poor.  Were it not for Jesus, who came to save me I would be weary and without hope.  Are you ready to die to yourself and be born in Him?  You will see as He sees and feel as He feels, touching the disfigured, hopeless masses with a love so powerful it made the universe come into being.  To follow Jesus is to know the pain of change.  Are you ready to be holy?