David Cover here, I asked Lacy if I could post on the blog to tell a story that many of you have been a part of. Those of you who have been to Jamaica have shared the experience of going to the May Pen Infirmary (some may know it as the Poor House), an experience that reminds me of the limit of language when I’m faced with describing it. In short the Infirmary is a government run facility (which means it’s the first to get funding pulled) where people are left to live out there lives in desolate conditions (picture one of the worst nursing homes in the U.S. and multiply that by ten). Each week we go to the Infirmary with the teams and every person who goes there will say they went in expecting to go and minister to the broken but found that it was themselves who were ministered to by men and women there. Phil once said that he has come to view the Infirmary as “a holy place” and I feel that to be true. God is in the Infirmary. There is a picture of total dependence on Christ and the promise of Heaven that is easily hidden in our every day lives but is exposed when we are hit with a sight of total depravity.
In my experience there, I have been hit by different things at different times but none stand out to me as much as my friendship with a woman named Pearl. Pearl does not belong in the Infirmary. Bed ridden by Multiple Sclerosis and a host of medical issues, Pearl was withering away physically, but completely in tact mentally. Perhaps that’s why it was so pleasant to visit with her on our trips there. And perhaps why it was also so incredibly miserable. Many residents of the Infirmary do not realize their situation. Unaware of their surroundings, unable to carry on cohesive conversations, mentally challenged or unstable, they don’t understand that no one else can care for them, that this is the rest of their lives. Pearl, on the other hand, was educated, and sharp. She’d been a veterinarian. She’d been adopted. She’d been an only child. And that’s why she was in the Infirmary… with her parents dead, there was no one left to care for her as she battled MS. But Pearl told us again and again that she had no regrets about her circumstance, that circumstance doesn’t change who God is, that God is good and God is faithful. “I thank Him for my life – yes, even my life here.”
I remember the first time I met her, I was spending the whole of the day at the Infirmary and I had been frustrated by interactions with incoherent men and women too broken to even interact and I wandered up to Pearl’s room at the advice of a friend. I sat down and started talking to her and was immediately hit by her presence. Pearl was full of wit and humor and patience. We began to talk about her life and she told me of all the dreams that she had when she was young and the struggle of disappointment at not being able to do those things. I was hit by her vulnerability and was listening in tears. Pearl’s faith was sound and her desire to live out her faith was equal to her belief in God’s plan. But on this day she told me that she was having a tough morning, the pains of her diseases were flaring and she was feeling despair at being left to lie in bed “wasting away.” She said she was struggling with being mad at God for putting her here when she wanted to go and serve him; to spread his Love even. She said she was praying for relief when I walked around the corner into her room. She said as she watched me listen to her story and saw how I was hit by her life she was reminded that God was using her to spread his Love. That since she was unable to go to people, he was bringing people to her, as every week a team came and every week someone’s life was hit by her story and her dependence on God.
I wanted to tell all of you that Pearl passed away early this week. Sorrow and sadness are appropriate (Jesus wept when Lazarus died) but I will admit I am filled with joy that she has gone Home. Pearl lived a life abiding in Christ, that’s all she could do, living in dependence and receiving everything from him. How reassuring it is to know that God will say “well done my good and faithful servant” to a woman who spent her life lying in a bed just the same as he would say to a person who devoted his life to serving the poor. I always think God is going to use important people. You know, the mighty people to reflect Jesus. In this case, He used a crippled lady hidden away in the middle of Jamaica to impact the lives of countless Americans. What hope that brings for the rest of us to see God’s power and providence. Thank you, Pearl.
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
Job 19: 25-27
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