Courage at Midnight

By Judith Ann Squier

“Why do we go on these mission trips?” My courage was running scared as my husband and I sat at Miami Airport, preparing for our midnight flight to Rio de Janeiro. The thrill of being invited to join Joni and Friends 2008 Wheels for the World (WFTW) team to Brazil was fading as I, a double amputee, faced the challenge of international air travel plus a week in a third world country. Was I prepared to crawl on buses? What about inaccessible restrooms? Not to mention, after delivering wheelchairs in Romania in 2007, I had arrived back in the USA to the nightmare – my wheelchair was lost.

“Lord, I need Your Courage,” I prayed as our jet headed to South America and my courage caught the red eye to the North Pole.

“Faithful is he who calls you, Who also will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:24

Courage met me each day in Rio de Janeiro. I saw it in the families we served. Their courage was contagious. I caught courage from the lady who sobbed uncontrollably in the waiting area, but couldn’t stop smiling seated in her wheelchair. And from the young man on a gurney, who two years earlier had fallen from a scaffold. And from the brave moms cradling the treasured, twisted bodies of their children.

The week flew by. Our last day of distribution had begun at 9 am. It was almost midnight. Our hearts vacillated between amazement at what God had done and jubilation that we were near the finish line.

It was five minutes to twelve when I noticed him -a gaunt, stiff-as-a-board figure on the mat. "He had no stately form or majesty that I should look upon him. Surely he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief." His brokenness drew me in. Suddenly I sensed the unthinkable. "It's Jesus. It's Jesus in disguise."   Like the Little Red Hen who shouted the sky is falling, I announced to everyone in the room - “He’s Jesus in disguise.”

Beholding this fifty-year-old man, crippled from birth, seated in his first-in-his-life wheelchair, transformed our work site into holy ground. Our team evangelist praised the Holy name of God, Whose only begotten Son became handicapped in our place. And as the clock struck midnight, our team who had given and given all week became the recipients of a holy thank-you straight from the heart of God. The man’s lips moved ever so slightly, and blessed us with what his family described was a kiss. A holy kiss.

Seeing Jesus that midnight infused me with courage enough for a lifetime of mission trips. Seeing Jesus explained WHY I go on mission trips? If God resides in broken people, sign me up. I am willing to draw on His Courage to leave the comforts of my home in Grants Pass, Oregon to travel the world so people can see the Jesus who resides in me.

Judith Ann Squier writes from Grants Pass, Oregon. Judyann777@aol.com