From: Simon Guillebaud [mailto:simon@greatlakesoutreach.org]
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
24 March 2009
PRAYER LETTER NO.62
Dear Team:
The Least of These in Burundi
I don't know where this email will go, but I want to get something down on paper/computer. My emotions are raw. I've just seen Sam again…
Two weeks ago she showed up, eight months pregnant, and confirmed the worst news - tests revealed she was HIV+. The following Sunday, our baby Grace was very sick and so I stayed at home to look after her. That's the only Sunday in many months that I was at home, and I think it was providential, as Sam rang. She'd been hit by a car and given birth to a dead baby. She wouldn't be released from hospital unless she paid her bills, which needed paying immediately (unpaid bills here means imprisonment). So I was able to help get her out of hospital and avoid jail.
Sam, 28-years-old, is at the bottom of the world's pile. Her system is slowly shutting down. Her leg is oozing puss. She has nobody in the world to look out for her.
And she came back to see me just now.
She is 'one of the least of these' that Jesus was talking about (Matthew 25); and so what I do for her, Jesus says, I'm doing for him. Somehow she is Jesus for me today. And what should I do with this Jesus sat in front of me…?
She's in pain. Her leg wound stinks. Her bleeding post-miscarriage is continuing. Her hands are trembling. She picks nervously and aggressively at her long grimy fingernails.
"Simon, can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"I don't want to beg. I want to work. I need to earn enough money for food and medicine. Can you give me enough to start a business?"
I'm so glad she's not begging, that she has the will to work, that she still has some form of bent hope.
"How much do you need?"
"$100 is enough to buy a phone and some units to sell to people who can't afford their own phone."
I'm aching inside. I'm challenged. You see, I'm all about the big picture and strategic involvement. Sam, however, is very small picture, and not strategic at all. To be blunt, she'll probably be dead in the next few years.
But God doesn't see her that way.
So neither can I.
I give her $110, the bit extra to treat her leg wound. I squeeze her, in an attempt to show her some real, pure, non-sexual fatherly love.
And as soon as she walks out of my office, three of my colleagues run up to me and warn me about her. She's a thief! She's a loose woman! She's a liar!
Angry tears well in my eyes.
Come on, guys! She may have been all three of those things, but she also bears the imprint of Christ! And hopefully she's changing. She's definitely not lying about her repulsive stinking wound, her HIV status, her lost baby. She's messed up - that's as clear as can be - but please, who are we to judge? First take the plank out of your own eye and deal with your own Pharisaic yeast infection!
Although I'm angry, I realise that my judgmental anger towards them risks worsening my own Pharisaic yeast infection… ________________________________________________________________________
Did Jesus come to you today, in whatever guise?
I think he did. I think he does, every day, sometimes very 'inconveniently'. So when he came, what did you do? What did you say?
If you didn't recognise him, don't worry, he'll be back; and now maybe you can choose to get ready.
So when he comes, what will you do? What will you say?
Because Jesus tells us what he will say in those awe-full words in Matthew 25:
"Whatever you did (not do) for one of the least of these, you did (not do) for me."
Thank you, Lord, for sending Sam into my life to challenge my selfishness, my business, my hard heart and my abstract theology.
May God help us to see Jesus in others, and be Jesus to others.
Thanks for your prayers for Burundi. God bless you,
Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org