As the phone rang that night in Jacksonville, Florida, I remember thinking, “Well Lord, someone out there has a need.”
However, what I didn’t expect as I picked up the phone and said, “Hello, 700 Club, thank you for calling,” was to hear someone sobbing uncontrollably on the other end, saying, “Nobody loves me, nobody loves me!” Although I tried to calm this lady by assuring her that Jesus loved her, the crying seemed to intensify. She cried out all the harder, “Nobody loves me, nobody loves me!” I said gently and lovingly, “Excuse me, ma’am, can we just talk for a minute?” She paused briefly, gasped a few times to stop crying, then stated, “I have called twenty seven churches to see if they will come and get me to bring me to church, but nobody will do it.” As she resumed crying, I said, “Ma’am, what is your name?” A pause ensued, then she answered, “My name is Betty, Betty Brown, and I live in a nursing home so nobody will bring me to church.”
As I felt the love of the Lord stretching my heart, I said, “Betty, can I come and visit you?” After a long pause, she said “Yes but, but….”
“But what, Betty,” I asked.
She responded by saying ,“I’m ugly,” and started crying hard again.
I said, “Betty, you are not ugly. God made you for His purposes and the Bible says we are made in His image and likeness, so if it is ok with you, I will call your nursing home for permission to come visit you.”
She replied saying, “OK, but there is something you need to know.”
said, “What’s that, Betty?”
She replied saying, “I have suffered from a rare disease since I was a child and am confined to a wheelchair. I am in my fifties, I am overweight, over 250 pounds, my face is partially paralyzed, I drool uncontrollably and have slurred speech.”
I responded by saying,” That’s ok, Betty. If they let me, I will come and visit you this week.”
The wonderful smile on that partially paralyzed face when I walked through the door of her room reflected her deep love of Christ. I kept our visit brief, but I knew I now had a new assignment from the Lord. I thought, “How can we get this dear lady two blocks down the street to our church service?” We had a weekly van ministry, which always picked up a few people. There was a space in the back where a wheelchair would fit, but Lord, how could we do it?” On the way out the door that day I stopped and asked the front desk what steps I would need to take to obtain permission to take her to church. Armed with that information, my next visit was to our senior pastor. “Well Nolan,” he said in response to my plan, “you have my complete blessing as long as the nursing home OK’s it and you can find some help from the van driver so the two of you can load her in.” As I was going out his office door, I said to myself, “Yes!” and felt a leap of joy in my heart. It took a couple of weeks to clear all of the paperwork and calm the concerns of the nursing home administration. Betty had no living relatives to sign off for her, so she was the responsibility of the State of Florida. However, with a lot of prayer and determination, and a senior saint behind the wheel of our church van, Betty rolled in one Sunday morning to her first church service in years with a wonderful grin on her partially drooling face.
Betty soon became many people’s blessing. I chose to sit next to her each week in church. She often requested trips to the altar. I remember that our church acquired bumper stickers that said, “NOBODY UNDERSTANDS LIKE JESUS.” Betty soon asked if she could have some and had three of them put on her wheel chair. Just as her smile was so obvious each Sunday when we picked her up, I could often see a tear as we did the posters.
Now, if you are given your assignment from God, don’t let self come in the way because he can always find someone else.
About The Author
Harrison Okafor
editor
Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
