During the last two weeks, the 8-member RescueNet Team of YWAM Heidebeek was able to treat and help approximately 150 people from two local villages and the impoverished community of Cold Valley. It was an incredible blessing to have them with us and to see so many people receive the check-ups and general medical care they so obviously needed.
One day while serving at Cold Valley, a woman – normally left to herself sitting on her box all day watching people – decided to come for evaluation. Known by her community as “Crazy Maria,” she sat down and took off her sock. Finding her foot blackened, the team saw that there was little they could do for her. They cleaned her foot, prayed for her, and then notified her that she needed to go to the hospital for a possible amputation. Two team members walked her home. Once they arrived, they decided to stay with her for awhile to continue praying and visiting with her.
During this time, another member of RescueNet spotted a car with Dutch license plates being driven up the hill. Asking if the driver was from Holland, the driver explained that he worked for a Dutch company and that he was from Cold Valley. When asked if he would like to talk about God, the driver declined, explaining that all the Christians he knew talked about God but didn’t live like God was real. During the conversation, the driver looked down the hill and saw two people sitting with Crazy Maria. “This is what I think Christians should be doing – sitting with people no one likes and caring for them. These are the Christians I want to know.” Finding out that the two sitting with Crazy Maria worked along with the team member speaking with this man, he became open to hearing more about God.
The people ministering to Maria didn’t know they were being watched. They only wanted to bless this woman whose needs were significant. But God used them, providing an example to an unbelieving man whose expectation of Christians had, on this particular occasion, been met.
Each day, we have an opportunity to be Christ to someone around us, and whatever we do might – in fact – be seen by others. It can be as simple as sitting and spending time with a person no one particularly likes. Thank you, RescueNet, for being such a testimony.
Blessings!
YWAM Targu Mures Staff