Funny story from the infirmary-

Hello friends! So I was planning on writing all about the stuff that has been going on in my mind about what it means to fully live the gospel and follow Jesus. However, a funny thing happened during our trip to the infirmary today, so I will write about it instead...

Some of you know what the infirmary is, and some of you don't. The government of Jamaica funds one infirmary in each parish in Jamaica, so there are 14 in all. We visit the Clarendon Infirmary, which is about 40 minutes from Harmons. The infirmary is kind of like a nursing home, however, it has the worst conditions I have seen in my life. Some of the people are healthy and "normal" (as bad as I hate to use the word.) Others are deformed and lifeless. Every week, Won By One To Jamaica takes an hour-long visit to go and love on our brothers and sisters that live there.

It's very interesting being on summer staff and visitng this place every single week. Sometimes it is a horror, while other times I have a great time just laughing and singing with my friends there. I feel a great sense of satan in that place, but I also feel more Jesus than I've ever felt in my life. While talking to the lonely, the dying, the sick, and the rejects of society, I am able to see Jesus in their eyes. These people have a holy nature about them, literally depending on Christ for provision in every area of their life. They have been stripped of every worldly thing (even relationships and physical love), that their only way to hope and have joy is to fall madly in love with the Lord.

Today as I was making my last trip around the men's ward, I went over to a man named Brown. He was hunched over his bed and looked to be feeling ill. I asked him how he was doing and he told me he was "not too good," and pointed to the bowl at his feet. He said his stomach was hurting him. I was with Phil and so Phil asked him if we could pray for him, because we didn't have any medicine so prayer was all we had to help. He said sure. As Phil began to pray, he asked Phil to pull up his shirt. Phil pulled up the shirt off his back and revealed very dry and scratched up skin. As soon as his shirt was up, Brown said, "Scratch it!" Phil and I both laughed. All he wanted was a back scratch! I thought it was so funny, and so neat. He was in an incredible amount of pain, but all he wanted was someone to scratch his back! I loved it...

The greatest part about getting to go to the infirmary week after week is that every week God reveals something new. Everytime I go, God teaches me something different. Sometimes I am mad, sometimes all I can do is question God, sometimes I am overwhelmed with the most genuine sense of joy, and times like this remind me that we are all people, brothers and sisters together. Today the Lord made me realize how much alike we really are with these people. All Brown wanted was a back scratch! He and I have a lot more in common than I thought!

Well, that's it for today. Maybe I'll try to write my "good post", as I called it, sometime in the next couple days. My advice to you, go scratch someones back!

Take care!

Lacy