By Katie Hamilton

EDITOR’S NOTE: Katie Hamilton is a daughter of Delinda and Steve Hamilton. Steve Hamilton is head pastor of the Grand Junction Seventh-day Adventist Church in Grand Junction, Colorado, and is the former Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) youth director. As Steve says, Katie is a product of the RMC’s mission where she grew up. Following her studies, she chose to become a missionary to Chad, a country in central Africa, serving in an Adventist hospital. Her story is a testimony in a short letter she sent to her parents, a testimony of understanding God’s invitation to be involved in His mission.

It is far easier to imagine what Jesus’ work and life on earth must have looked like here in Chad. I now know what a dirt courtyard with sick and dying patients lying on mats looks like. I know the cry of a young patient in deep pain laying on the sidewalk. I now understand your diagnosis of a people disheartened and without a shepherd. I know what dusty sandals and sickness looks like.

I now do not have to imagine the setting Jesus ministered in, which makes imagining Him a little easier. What would it be like to follow Jesus on rounds in the morning instead of the incredible doctors here? How amazing to follow a doctor who could see the condition of the heart without a stethoscope, a doctor who never needed a translator for the hundreds of tribal dialects because He spoke the language of the soul!

Oh, to follow a doctor with a trash can to throw away the molded mats that smell like infection because every patient walked out pain-free, leaping for joy. To follow a doctor who brought smiles to a people-group who have forgotten what life without famine is like …

I do follow this doctor.

Jesus was going through all cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the peoples, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd, Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” (Matthew 9: 35-38)

These people have taught me that poverty and brokenness cannot steal your joy, your smile, your ability to dance, your ability to cry, or your ability to love beyond language.

—Katie Hamilton is a member of the Grand Junction Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photo supplied.