Love in Action Transforms Family

For 14-year-old Adan and 13-year-old Davi, the reality of their father's diagnosis hung over their lives as surely as the frequent rain clouds that hung over the mountains outside their house. First, the cancer had stolen Ikem's ability to talk. Then, as it spread, it stole his ability to move freely, making it impossible for him to work.

Now, Adan and Davi's mother, Aitana, had gone abroad to work and provide for the family. In their mother's absence, Adan and Davi took Ikem to the hospital, bought him medicines and even helped him to the bathroom. It was a heavy burden for the boys to bear. But if they didn't care for their father, who would?

Help arrived when Adan and Davi's grandparents—Ikem's parents—came to live with them and help care for Ikem. With the boys no longer their father's sole caregivers, perhaps they could regularly make it to school on time.

But the hope was short-lived. Only two weeks after moving in, Adan and Davi's grandfather had a stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down. And due to the cool mountain climate, their grandmother was often sick, limiting her ability to help.

Fear descended on the family. Why was everything going wrong? The boys' father and grandparents believed they were cursed and, perhaps, even tormented by an evil spirit. They prayed to their gods for deliverance, but they found no peace. And Ikem's condition grew worse.

One day, when their father's suffering was particularly severe, a stranger appeared at Adan and Davi's door. His name was Pastor Sorin, and he talked with them for a while, explaining the love of Jesus. Then he noticed Ikem in the corner. When the pastor asked what was wrong, Adan and Davi told him about their father's cancer and the difficulties of caring for him.

The pastor prayed for Ikem and asked the boys about his treatments. Had Ikem taken his medications? Had he been to the hospital for his regular check-up? Adan and Davi explained that they hadn't been able to take their father to the hospital recently. Concerned by the man's sickly appearance, Pastor Sorin told them that he would bring his auto rickshaw and take Ikem to the hospital himself.

When Pastor Sorin and another believer arrived later that evening, their compassion brought Christ's love to life for Adan, Davi and their family. The pastor and his friend hardly knew Adan and Davi—and yet they were entering the family's suffering and helping the boys care for their father. Maybe, just maybe, the brothers and their family weren't alone after all.

The news from the hospital was not good. Ikem's cancer had spread too far, and he was dying. Yet, once again, Pastor Sorin did not leave Adan, Davi and their family alone in their suffering. He visited Ikem in the hospital every day. Ikem couldn't speak, but he could see and understand what others said, and he could communicate through writing. As Pastor Sorin visited him day after day, Ikem asked him to pray for his family, that God would help them.

Pastor Sorin did pray, and God answered. At the end of the month, Ikem was able to say some words. His speech was slow, and his words were small. But he was speaking! Then he began learning to pray.

Adan and Davi were amazed at what God had done. The brothers and their grandparents began learning to pray, too. The boys joined Pastor Sorin in the hospital to pray for their father's healing and invited the pastor to their home to pray for their grandparents.

As their confidence in Christ's care for them grew, so did their joy. Adan and Davi began attending services and the youth fellowship at Pastor Sorin's church, and their father chose to embrace Christ from his hospital bed. The boys' grandfather, who had been partially paralyzed by his stroke, received healing through the prayers of his son and grandsons. Jesus had not left them alone.

Sadly, however, Ikem's overall condition continued to worsen, and he died in the hospital. Aitana, devastated by her husband's death, returned immediately for Ikem's funeral. When she arrived home, she was touched by the change she saw in Adan, Davi and their grandparents. Although Ikem had died, the boys and their grandparents were not overcome by their sorrow. They knew that Ikem was with Jesus—the One who loved them and who had come to them in their need.

Inspired by their faith, Aitana asked Pastor Sorin to conduct her husband's funeral. After the service, Aitana told the pastor, "I, too, want to experience the joy my husband had and sons have now." Like her boys and their grandparents, Aitana embraced the love of the One who had not left her family alone.

Aitana wasn't the only one impacted by Christ's work in her husband and sons. After seeing the family's experience with Christ, some of the neighbors also embraced Jesus' love, and Ikem's family and two other families decided to meet for prayer. Pastor Sorin visited every week, and the prayer group became a small fellowship, with 18 new believers worshiping the Lord.

Adan, Davi and their family were surrounded and upheld—not just by Christ, but by His people, too. The believers helped each other as needs arose. One church member even donated their old home to be used as a church building.

"Today, I am so happy to worship a living God," Aitana shared. "… I will continue to tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what Ikem would have also done if he [were] alive."

Today, many families like Ikem's—who were suffering and struggling alone—can now rejoice because they, too, have experienced the Lord doing great things in their lives. As more and more people encounter Christ's compassion through faithful believers like Pastor Sorin and his congregation, transformation extends throughout families and communities.

You can join in this work of God by sponsoring a missionary like Pastor Sorin! Whether through a rickshaw ride to the hospital, a prayer for someone in need, an income-generating gift or an encouragement from the Word, pastors and their congregations are reaching out to their communities as the hands and feet of Christ. As you come alongside these brothers and sisters, you help make it possible for even more families to say with Aitana, "I am so glad that I met the Lord Jesus Christ."