My gratitude was real . . . and
surprising, even to me.
I beamed, “Thank you Lord . . . what a gift!” Gifts
come in many shapes and sizes and in various forms. We often think of gifts as
‘things’ – something we give to or receive from someone else.
This ‘gift’? A magazine article.*
Words. Black ink on white paper. Also a coloured photo of a smiling,
greying-haired woman of Asian ethnicity. I first met Debbie Sirjoosingh
three decades ago and heard her address a number of conferences over the years. I still sense the throb of passion with which she spoke of her love for the people of Ethiopia, the country where she was serving. People were dying in the tens of thousands from disease and starvation, during famine and political upheaval. She’d shared the love of Jesus there, treating the sick and distributing food. After six years, Debbie returned to her work amongst her beloved Turkana people of northwest Kenya.
This woman has been a gift from God to thousands. That ‘gift’ article updated me on her life, and I’m thrilled that her fruitful labour continues and her passion remains unabated today. An afterglow lingered in my soul right through Christmas.
Upon her original arrival at a remote
area of Turkana in the early 1980s, she was greeted by 60 degree Celsius
temperatures, parched land and whirling, blowing sand and a dried-up river bed
and virtually no water.
A grass hut became home and a small
rodent-infested hut her dispensary. No phone, no post office and no newspapers.
Neither was there electricity or medical doctors. And yet, in her heart she
belonged. “[That’s] where God desired me to serve Him: among the Turkana people
. . .” she said.
Although she didn’t know the language and had no one to teach her, Debbie learned by living and interacting with the people and loving them in practical ways. Back then, most local Turkana had never heard the name of Jesus. Many years before, a German missionary couple had shared Jesus’ message, but were long gone.
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| Photo Credit: SAGE, Fall 2015 www.paoc.org |
I was truly humbled when reading her
words: “I worked on the ground, on bended knees, delivering babies, washing and
binding very infected wounds, dividing my bed sheets to give to the naked,
cooking porridge and tea to serve the hungry, excavating graves with pick-axe
and shovel to bury the ones who succumbed.”
What a gift: one woman, one
compassion-filled heart, alone with God!
I’d also heard some time ago that she’d dug foundations and helped erect
buildings for housing practical services and ministries for the people of the
community. Churches have been established and pastors raised up and equipped to
minister amongst the Turkana.
Currently, with funding from praying friends
and donor supporters in Canada and assistance from ERDO (denominational-based
NGO) and in cooperation with Kenya Ministry of Health, much has been
accomplished. Presently a solar-powered health centre is under construction. It
will soon be opened to care for the medical needs of 50,000 people and will
provide both in-patient and out-patient care.
Although told that there was no water
in the area, through prayer Debbie and those involved were led to “the exact
spot to sink a borehole,” so they now have water to support the development.
She has trained Turkana students who are continuing their education in various
aspects of nursing, nutrition, agriculture, and more.
This intrepid follower of Jesus is
still gripped by a passionate forward-reaching grace. “My journey continues,
hand in hand with Him, until eternity,” she said. And so, one year flows into the next and
Deborah Sirjoosingh continues to go with the flow, sailing on and serving
wherever the will of God carries her.
Hers has been an ‘incarnational’
Christian life. And that is what Christmas is about. God was incarnate – “robed
in flesh” – in Jesus Christ. He still is, in people like Debbie. More than ink
and paper, God’s Best Gifts are “the word made flesh.”
~~~
*Photo credit and updated information courtesy of SAGE,
Fall 2015; www.paoc.org;
Article by Deborah Sirjoosingh with Freda Myco.
(A shorter edition of the above post was published in Peter's weekly column, P-Pep! in The Standard Guide Advocate, Dec. 17, 2015.)
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