Written: June 2009
While I was preparing to take a team to an Asian nation for outreach, I was told that it is closed to the gospel of God. I was told that we can’t preach, we can’t do dramas about Jesus, and we can’t sing songs about God’s love. So as a team we prayed, and we asked God the following questions: “How do you share the freedom of Christ in a nation that has no freedom?” “How do you preach the gospel without words?” “How do you convince a person that Jesus died just for him, when he’s one amongst millions?”

Well, we didn’t really have the answers when we left, but in faith we knew that God would provide a way to share His love with the people in that nation. There are many stories about this trip, many salvations and wonderfully amazing moments, but to me the following story is a story of how God wants us to live our lives, every day.

One our first day there we meet a girl named Wendy. She was not a Christian, but she had heard of God and even knew a few Christians. She was teaching us the language while we were teaching her English. Over the next two weeks we meet with Wendy every few days and got to know her very well, but she never expressed any interest in becoming a Christian. Then one week we had the opportunity to go work in a leper colony. These people with leprosy had been forced to live in remote villages, with no way to make a living or to take care of themselves. So we invited Wendy to go with us, even though we didn’t really know what we would be doing there.

We arrived early in the afternoon, and there were about 17 lepers living in this 200-year old abandoned monastery. The people were living in old grass and clay huts. Amazingly, 12 of them were Christians and had the most amazing joy flowing out of them. Most of the people could barely walk and had limited use of their hands. One of the ladies was blind, and two of them were completely crippled and unable get out of their beds. So we decided that we would just serve them and love on them. We cut and washed their hair, cleaned out their rooms that had accumulated years of filth and dirt, washed their clothes and bedding, and cleaned anything else we could find. Well, all this day Wendy stood back and watched us. She was shocked at the conditions the people were living in, and she was shocked that we were touching them, loving them, and helping them.

At the end of the first day we thought we had at least seen and prayed for everyone, but we found we had only seen 16 of the 17 people living there. So we went back through the rooms looking for the last person. We opened the door to one room and saw a little lump on the bed. The room reeked of urine, and the floor and walls were covered in flies. We walked over to the bed and lifted the blanket to find a very small woman covered in sores, and she was dying. As we stood there in shock at her condition we began to pray for her. The longer we prayed the closer we moved to her, and soon everyone was touching her, smoothing her face, and loving on her. One of the students leaned over and kissed her on the forehead three times as God spoke to him to do so. As I was on my knees crying for this woman and her condition, God said to me, “I never meant for it to be this way; no one was ever supposed to live like this.” I could do nothing but pour out love toward this woman, who in her dying state began to weep.

Later that night our team sat in our room in shock but also in awe. God had used us to love His children, people whom the world has shunned and has forgotten. We each shared how we were feeling; how we felt so lucky to be there that day, and we ended with a time of prayer and worship. Then Wendy stood up and with tears in her eyes said, “I knew Christians before today, and I have heard about God, but I never knew until today what it meant to be a Christian. As I watched this team I saw what it means to be a Christian, and I want to be a Christian so I can live my life like this.” So we prayed with Wendy and then celebrated her new life with her.

As I was going to sleep that night God whispered, “That is how you preach my gospel without ever saying a word.”