This week I had the opportunity to go to a hospital for the terminally ill, called The Hope House. I thought it would be something new and different from my everyday routine of helping at the care points. While in Swaziland, I’ve been asking God to challenge me, and I figured The Hope House would be perfect. For me, talking to children is easy, but talking to people on their death bed is a whole different story.
Literally as son as I stepped onto the property, I could feel the peace that filled the air. From the beautiful gardens to the plaques on the walls about prayers, you could see Gods work in this place. As comforting as that was I was still worried because I had no idea what to tell someone who was suffering. I guess that was kind of why I wanted to go to Hope House, I just didn’t realize me launching myself out of my comfort zone would be at the expense of someone else.
Walking into the first house was nerve wrecking. It was a woman in a wheelchair who went on to tell us she was paralyzed and had been for a while. No words came out of my mouth. I had nothing to offer her except a smile. This woman was so joyful! She just kept saying, “I’m happy too much, I’m happy too much!” it literally broke my heart because all this time I had been praying for God to give me the words to say, but when it came down to it, I had none. And it was more than enough. We prayed for her and moved on, we then had a similar experience at the next house, but this woman was HIV/AIDS positive, and was suffering from cancer of the liver.
She literally could not speak, yet she smiled. Our words were nothing in comparison to our presence.
It was a huge wake up call, that I have nothing to offer these people except the love of Jesus. Simply being there was sufficient enough for them, but i tried to complicate the situation with trying to provide something that I don’t have. I only have love.
I feel like Hope House gave more to me than I gave to it. Love doesn’t have to be shown with fancy rehearsed words, love can simple me shown with a smile.
Still learning,
Katie
