Story #3
Today in my third Outreach Story entry I will be writing about a heart warming story of a mother, Mudemia, and her daughter, Boosheti. I am so thankful God stirred my spirit to write again. It is so much fun for me to relive these memories of God's miraculous wonders and share them with you. (Tap here to read previous Outreach Stories Entry 20: Outreach Stories (Nadrin and his Mother) - 3/4/23 Entry 23: Outreach Stories #2 (Delivering the Gospel) ) During my outreach I was reading and meditating upon the Psalms in my quiet times. I remember one thing God highlighted to me that showed up so often in the Psalms are phrases like "I will share of God miraculous deeds" "I will tell all the generations to come of what God has done" "Because you have delivered me I will proclaim to all the people what you have done" and "My mouth will tell of your righteous acts". Verses like these inspired me while I was on my outreach. I would see God show up in wondrous ways everyday. In these beautiful moments I would hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit saying "share of my righteous acts". That is why I was so diligent in writing down every time God moved in a big way. I wanted to be a steward of the testimonies and stories God was giving me so I could share them with others. In this sharing of stories it not only helps me remember what God did and his power but I hope it edifies each one of you reading and builds your faith. Stories and communication through language are one of the most powerful things God has given us. Through stories we can see how God moves throughout other's lives and in ways we possibly could have never imagined before. One thing I ask of you who are reading, is to allow God to bring to the surface anyway you have possibly put him in a box in your life. God can do crazy things in our lives when we surrender, but enough with the intro. Enjoy this story of God moving in the lives of a faithful mother and daughter.
Left to right: Me, Bree (Teammate), Mudemia, Emma(Leader), Pinky(Translator), Boosheti, Abby(Teammate)
Mudemia and Boosheti
Unlike my previous Outreach Stories, this one does not take place in an upper mountain village but rather in the slums of a heavily populated city around 3,500' Elevation. This story also technically takes place before we go to the villages that I write about in the previous stories about Nadrin and Delivering the Gospel. It was just another day of ministry when my team leaders, Emma and Gracen, split up into two teams. Gracen's team was going to do sports ministry which consisted of playing soccer with a whole bunch of children then ending the time with one team member sharing the gospel with the group. Emma's team was gonna go to a lady's house who had a paralyzed daughter to serve and love on them. I was prayerfully put on Emma's team along with Brie and Abby. Selfishly I was a little discouraged because all three of my guy outreach teammates were on the other team and got to do sports ministry. Thankfully the Holy Spirit's conviction helped me check my heart before we even left to go to Mudemia and Boosheti's house. As I was praying about the day I felt God put Matthew 25:40 on my heart. It is the verse about Jesus say "What you do to the least of these, you have done to me". It got me thinking "wow, as I go serve this mother and daughter in the slums, I am literally serving the heart of Jesus". This small revelation gave me so much reverence toward the mission I was now assigned for the day and that was to serve these two women the way I would serve Jesus, because I literally was.
We walked for about an hour from the place we were staying to get to Mudemia and Boosheti's house in the slums. When we arrived there was such a tenderness in my heart when I saw the 95 year old mother and her 61 year old daughter who was paralyzed from the waist down. We started by talking with them through our translator, Pinky. She could hardly speak English so it was always kind of a rough draft of a conversation when trying to get a message across the language barrier. Even through the language barrier I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit moving so affluently through these women, and their smiles, and gestures. We had been all gathered on the front porch of their little shack as seen in the picture above. For reference the house is only as big as you can see in that picture and had only two rooms inside. Boosheti crawled into the house and moments later crawled out with an old comb and dull scissors. She then handed the comb and scissors to me and now I had no choice but to cut her hair. I was enthusiastic to do it and serve her but also hesitant because I have never cut hair and I also did not want to accidentally cut her. She laid out a mat in front of the house so she could crawl on it and then just waited for me to cut. She already had really short hair, like if we were talking barber lingo, she was sitting at like a 5 ish length buzzcut and wanted it down to a 3 or 4 length. This definitely removed a lot of pressure because there's not a whole lot to mess up. I ended up cutting her hair for about a half an hour using the dull scissors and God wrecks my heart during the cut. It was just so tender the way she sat there and trusted me to serve her. Her mom would tell me to go shorter in certain areas or give me tips and I realized I was serving her in a way that usually would have been her mother's job and that brought me so much joy. while I was cutting her hair the girls on my team were cleaning out their house for them.
We then gathered back on the porch and this is when the Mother Mudemia started sharing about her relationship with God. She said how God has always provided for her and Boosheti their entire lives. Even though she could hardly walk from her porch to her bedroom, Mudemia said God always uses people like us to provide for them and when they do not have food, God gives them the strength to survive without it. Mudemia went on to tell us that God is like an eagle that covers her and Boosheti with his wings when fire comes and protects them. This was so beautiful for me to hear because I had just meditated on Psalms 91 that morning. A verse from Psalm 91 is "He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.". Then Mudemia said yesterday she had a dream of angels coming to her front door. She told us she now knows those angels represented us coming to her house. She did not know we were gonna go to her house. Our contacts hosting us knew about her and randomly brought us to her house without telling her. I then had a thought and it was "if I went all the way to Hawaii for three months for lecture phase of my DTS, then came all the way to Nepal just to display God's faithfulness to these two faithful believers of Christ and show them that He sees them... It would all be worth it".
God Heals Physically and Emotionally
After talking and laughing with each other we asked Mudemia if she had any prayer requests. She said that her shoulder had been in so much pain recently and that she could hardly move it. We then all started praying and interceding on behalf of Mudemia and her shoulder. After praying she said it felt slightly better and she showed us that she could now move her arm. We then praised God and prayed again for more healing. Even Jesus is recorded to pray multiple times for one healing in the Gospels, so if the Son of God sometimes prays more than once, so will we. It also builds faith as you continue waring and praying for something. After the second prayer Mudemia said the pain was almost completely healed and she moved her arm even more than the first time. We lifted up a shout of praise to God for healing and moving then we prayed one more time. This time she said the pain was completely gone then moved her arm above her head with excellent mobility for a 91 year old women living in the slums. We continued to give God the glory for his miraculous works and praised him. Some of us, including me were brought to tears. I am not sure if it was from the healing or of the heavily-present Spirit of God and joy between us and 2 ladies we had only met an hour ago. I knew God was moving in wondrous ways so with stirred faith I asked Boosheti if I could pray for her paralyzed legs. Not only was our relationship closer from the previous hair cut I gave her but I also learned that her and I had the same birthday which was so random how it got brought up but just showed me that it was no coincidence I was chosen to go with Emma's team for the day. When I asked to pray for her legs Boosheti replied that I should pray for her and her mothers relationship because sometimes they fight. I misunderstood that through the translation and selfishly wanted to see a crazy healing of her legs because I thought that would be awesome. It was a reasonable desire but God had other plans. We all started praying for her legs that they would be healed and I closed the prayer and felt so much faith that God was moving and gonna heal. God did heal but it was not in the way I desired. When I opened my eyes her legs still could not move but then she told us something amazing. She said as I was praying she had a vivid vision. In the vision all of our voices faded away and everyone around disappeared except for her mother and her. Beside her mother and her was God and they were all united. Boosheti said she felt God give her unity with her Mother. After she shared this Mudemia, Boosheti, Myself, and the rest of the team started praising God and even weeping at the closeness of God and his relational character.
Follow Up
Before we left I observed a small flower on the hat Boosheti was wearing and showing off to all of us. I then walked over beside her house and picked a couple flowers then gave them to her and she lit up with excitement and gratitude. Seeing her smile made my heart so happy and brought me great joy. We then said our goodbyes and left. About two weeks later we returned, but this time we brought all types of food and fresh water for them. Once again it was a surprise and they were so excited to see us. We gave them food like rice, bread, peanut butter and jelly, and chocolate. As we were talking with them they encouraged us to go home and share Mudemia and Boosheti's life story and how God healed them physically and emotionally. They asked us to remember them which was so cool because I had planned on giving Boosheti something that would help them remember us. My Mom had given me a bandana when I went on outreach, so I cut the bandana in half and gave Boosheti half of it so we could both remember each other.
Thank you for reading this amazing story of God's faithfulness and powerful Spirit. I hope it moved you as much as it did me. Even though my team and I went to serve and pour out into Mudemia and Boosheti, I felt they impacted me even more then I impacted them. Their faithfulness and relationship with God inspired me and edified my Spirit for the rest of my outreach and still to this day their story encourages me.
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