by Sandi Derbyshire

 

"Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.”—Luke 14:23

 

 

            There are plenty of exceptions, but many things that happen on mobile clinic can be expected and are pretty routine. For instance, it is expected and routine for there to be a nurse’s station with blood pressure cuffs, a doctor’s station with flash lights and tongue depressors, and a pharmacy station with all the meds laid out A-Z. It is expected that everyone who comes will have the gospel shared with them one on one. It is routine for us and expected that on a mobile clinic there are patients to be seen. But on this particularly special day on mobile clinic in June 2015 there was no one.  We had arrived early in the morning to the village where we had appointed to hold a mobile clinic.  We had set up our tables, set out our meds, and set our sights on treating the sick and preaching the kingdom of God.  We only lacked one thing.  There were no patients.  We had sent out our invitation, but no one was coming.  

            To solve this simple issue Uncle Rob Pengra suggested we go into the village and tell them that we were here. So three of us set off in an effort to “compel” people to come get their free meds and hear about the God who made the world. At the fourth house I walked into there I met a sweet auntie who was about 50 years old who had all sorts of questions and was very excited when I told her about the clinic. About midway through one of her sentences she grabbed my arm and whispered, “You need to go visit that house (she pointed) my neighbor has a very sick child who never leaves her room.” Many things came to my head on why she was whispering this information to me. One thought being that I should not go into that house alone. Right at that moment Uncle Rob walked up to us as we were talking. “Perfect timing,” I thought, “now I can to the house without hesitation.” The Lord knew I would be messing up this opportunity if I did not go, so in his perfect timing he sent Uncle Rob.

            We walked up to the house and a kind man greeted us and immediately showed us into the house.   Assuming I was a doctor, (probably because I had my stethoscope around my neck), he proceeded to tell me a bunch of information that I was not understanding about the girl behind the door we stood in front of. Not sure what to expect I nodded my head and opened the door. I met two sunken eyes that looked at me from a mat on the floor. A 19 year old girl, we will call Tye, was skin and bone and deathly still in the center of the room. Her grandmother, sitting next to her, got up to come and tell me about all the doctors they had seen and how they couldn’t afford the “special” doctor because they had little money. I told them I would be back with a doctor shortly and I ran back to the clinic to grab my dad. When we came back we discovered that Tye had an incurable complication of Aids. We went through her bag of medicines and found that there was nothing that we could add that would help to cure her dying body. But, we did have lots to offer to cure her dying soul. We shared the gospel with her.  We started by introducing her to the Creator of the universe.  We talked with her about the ugliness of sin, and the Savior who made a way for us to be with that awesome loving Creator. My dad asked her before he started sharing if she had strength to speak. She said yes and after the gospel had been shared she said she believed in Jesus Christ and she prayed to receive Him into her life. We prayed over her and with her after this and talked to the grandmother awhile after this. The local pastor was then able to be brought to the house and he prayed for Tye again and said he would be able to visit her weekly.

            When Jesus walked the Earth rarely did you find him in one place for an extended amount of time. He went to people, He found people, so that His house would be full. You would think that with thousands flocking to Him He would have a good reason to stay in one place but He didn’t. Jesus sought people out – and He gave us His example so that we would do the same.  What a mighty awesome God we serve.  I want to serve Him in His house and in the highways and byways as well.  I want His house to be full.   

 

(By the way, after our little visit into the village, over 200 people came to see us and hear the gospel story.)