This is my friend Sarah who is a part of our church community. You’ll remember her if you’ve followed this blog at all. You can read about her here, here, here, here, and here. She lost her boyfriend, soon to be fiance, Nato, to suicide in January. Our community went through a very dark valley with her. There was lots of darkness, anger, pain, rage, swearing, drinking, smoking, arguing, crying, some laughing, but over all fierce emotions. It wasn’t pretty. All the while I had this deep conviction that we all needed to trust Sarah on her own path with God. I trusted, somehow, for her life.
A couple of months ago, she felt God’s encouragement to accept an invitation to work in an orphanage in Cambodia. She accepted. This is a picture she sent of herself there, working with her specialty: children. She’s a pediatric nurse that’s worked in our hospital’s pediatric intensive care. The doctor in Cambodia put her right to work in the midst of terrible conditions. She felt herself come alive again. She actually felt true joy returning. Here’s a short note she wrote to me:
This is me in Cambodia holding a baby I found in an orphanage – much too small and scrawny for his actual age due to illness and malnutrition. I loved him, and I bought him medicine for his infections. There were many such encounters as this through my three weeks there: working in the slums providing medical care to the poor – assessing babies with swollen bellies and high fevers, children with tuberculosis, giving them what I could. This has birthed a new joy in me, a new purpose. There are many who suffer in the world. I have been one of them, and I want to serve others.
This is why I don’t demand change. I trust that people, exposed to truth and love, will experience transformation if they are open and willing. No pressure. No coercion. No expectations. No plan. Just truth and love in community… a powerful recipe for change. Truth be told, we all have changed, thanks to Sarah and her tenacious willingness to be authentic, honest and raw. We watched God transform her and transform us together in the furnace of pain and the fellowship of suffering.
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David Hayward is an artist trapped in a pastor's body, stripping to the essential.
Wow! There is a beautiful new light in those eyes. Please, thank Sarah for sharing her journey with us.
Right on, right on, right on. Cheers, Sarah!
One of the best parts of the good news is that Jesus can do his job better if everyone else isn’t already trying to do it. What a weight off my shoulders to consider that changing people isn’t my job. Thanks for sharing this, np. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
thankyou np and thankyou sarah for this beautiful post.
the picture says it all doesn’t it? how beautiful!
stacy
In my own life I’ve found that suffering often leads to joy. When others rush me to “get over things” or to “be positive”, I feel like they are offering me the cubic zirconia of joy–happiness–which has the look of luxury but no real value.
Thankfully, God doesn’t rush us. He is longsuffering and patient. I think He wants to give his bride the real deal–the precious diamond of joy–not some cheap substitute. Look at the picture again; Sarah is positively glowing. God offered her His symbol of love with the perfect cut, color, clarity, and size chosen specifically for her. And she accepted. What a beautiful union!
I agree with Chris, Sarah’s eyes are shining. It’s great to hear about what she is doing in Cambodia, God is using her in a great way. Very beautiful.
Thanks for introducing me to a true hero today.
How amazing! Yea for Sarah!!
May God continue to smile upon you, Sarah! Safe journeys to you…
Beauty for ashes
Great to see you smiling again sarah!
I guess it goes to show – even in suffering – something good can grow from it – not a very popular message amongst people these days. I am glad she has found something to do with her pain and hurt – a way to find healing.
She is beautiful – love the pic all in all! Where in Cambodia is she? Pnomh Penh or elsewhere?
Mimosa: Pnomh Penh. She’s traveling Europe now by Eurorail. Thanks for your thoughts.
Beautiful
Can I say, there is nothing more beautiful than observing people doing good for other people, just for the sake of other people.
Let me emphasize, PEOPLE doing good for other people.
As may be expected from me, I was moved by this story of Sarah…but found the last sentence in the post anti climactic. For what you all observe is the same that I observe; a young woman, even in the midst of a painful period of her life, making sacrifices for the good of others. I feel that giving credit for her actions to some unseen, undetectable, entirely absent being, while it may make you feel…warm inside…to me, the atheist, it makes the golden rule a tad less precious.
Why can’t we just report on the facts; Sarah is getting on with her life, doing good to others as others have done good to her? The facts, in my mind, make a beautiful story.
So change does happen–just not according to some human being’s presupposed schedule or agenda.
It’s a good post.
sweet, sarah
Really moving post, thanks for sharing Sarah’s story. I really appreciate your philosophy, of trusting and allowing God to work in His time and His way.
I never had the opportunity to meet Sarah or Nato, but I have prayed for her often. Thank you so much for sharing this beauty and truth with us. Beautiful.
Praise God! Great that you were there for her!
Also I posted something on freedom in regard to your blog, David. Here it is: http://communityofjesus.blogspot.com/2007/08/freedom-from-what.html
I hope it’s not unfair. Blessings on you and yours.