My wife Kathy and I founded WOW 26 years ago. Our calling and vision was to mobilize African churches to transform their communities stricken by the decimating scourge of HIV and AIDS, leaving thousands of orphans and widows in its wake. We started with very little but over the past quarter century WOW has grown into a force in Jesus’ name.
In that time our African champions with their local church-based volunteers have ministered to thousands of dying and at risk patients. And at least once, sometimes twice, a year we have visited our ministry partners to encourage and inspire them in their endless work. We speak to entire villages, sometimes with as many as 2000 sitting on the ground in relentless heat to hear words of challenge and encouragement. Then, as always, we walk from these gatherings to the humble dwellings of those in need of prayer.
We’ve prayed for hundreds personally over the years but from time to time there are patients who linger in our memory.
One such patient is a 65 year old Malawian by the name of Luciano. He was/is suffering from HIV and AIDS complications, as many do, but also from an affliction that I can recall in none that I’ve ever prayed for: leprosy(!).
As he lay on the ground outside his mud brick home I was struck not only by his vulnerability but by the stigma and discrimination that has historically accompanied this frightful affliction. I remembered that Jesus resisted the cultural rejection of lepers and against all wisdom actually touched them physically as they came to him for healing. I felt I could do no less. So I bent down and laid my hand on his fevered head as I prayed. I could hardly find words to speak.
It occurred to me that the old adage applied: “There but for the grace of God go I”. Sooner or later we will all be lying on a bed of affliction. We are all mortal. How important then to commit ourselves to the mercy and love of God. To hear him welcome us home with “Well done” is the goal.
