What is a wedge?
According to the Webster’s Dictionary it is: “A piece of
metal, particularly iron, thick at one end and sloping to a thin edge at the
other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc.”
If you are splitting wood into smaller chunks, a wedge is
very useful! It helps to divide the hard wood into pieces without so much
effort.
Did you know the sometimes people’s hearts are just as hard
as wood? So we need to have a wedge to enter their hearts with the gospel! What
is our wedge?
“I can see in the Lord's providences that the medical
missionary work is to be a great entering wedge, whereby the diseased soul may
be reached.” --Counsels on Health, p.
535.
So the medical missionary work is our wedge and by using it,
we can enter people’s hard hearts with the gospel message! Does it work? Yes!
Keep reading for some of our students’ experiences of using this effective
wedge!
“On Wednesday, my husband and I ventured into a new area
with our health survey sheets. We soon discovered that this method was so much
more effective than offering Bible studies! While we were checking the people’s
blood pressure and counseling them, I could really see them start to relax and
open up to us! One young girl just couldn’t get enough and kept asking question
after question. Also her uncle seemed to have every health problem in the book!
I can really see how medical missionary work can reach the heart! On another
day, we visited another one of our interests, knowing that her husband had the
chicken pox. They invited us inside and when I pulled out the blood pressure
cuff, her eyes lit up. She said, ‘I was trying to get my husband to go get his
blood pressure checked, but he refused to go. But God brought the blood
pressure to us!’ We were so blessed this week!”
Another student said, “This was a very exciting week for us!
We really saw how medical missionary work easily reached the people and they
welcomed us with big smiles! We conducted so many health surveys and I was
inspired by one lady. Why? Because she has colon cancer, but is still an active
drop-off study student and all her answers are correct! What inspired me most
this week was that people readily welcomed and accepted us because of our
interest in their health. It’s so inspiring to help people with their health
problems! They were very open to us and told us everything about themselves and
it was so amazing!”
Another one said, “The medical missionary work is really the
right hand of the gospel! We experience many times that it was so difficult to
go inside someone’s house because they were prejudiced. But when we started
doing health surveys and offering blood pressure check-ups, we found immediate
entrance! In one place we had passed earlier that refused to listen to anything
we had to say, we stopped again and offered to do the health survey and
amazingly, they agreed and we went inside their house!”
One student added, “This week we had a Bible study with our
interested we met 2 weeks ago. She was busy and didn’t have a lot of time to
study. But last week, she had a terrible stomachache, so we did a health survey
on her and then brought her some charcoal and directed her how to take us. When
we visited her a few days later, she felt much better! I think that opened her
heart to us because she allowed us to do a Bible study with her! Our first
study went really well and she shared to us that one time she had a very
serious disease and how Jesus had helped her! Her eyes filled with tears as she
told us about it. God’s love is working for everyone who will seek Him! Another
time, we met a man who had had a stroke and also had all kinds of bad habits,
which caused his various diseases. He was sitting along the street and we
conducted a health survey on him and he was very happy for our help! I
remembered the story of the paralytic man whose heart was filled with guilt and
his friends took him to Jesus. I was very touched that we could help this man
and I’m hoping he will get well and be able to praise God for it!”
And another student shared her experience by saying, “We met
a Muslim family this week on outreach who owns a shoe shop. We were passing by
their shop when we decided to turn back and talk to the women inside. We didn’t
know they were Muslims until we completed the health survey on the lady of the
shop. One of the questions is, ‘What is the amount of time you spend each day
in Bible study and prayer?’ She said she prayed 5 times a day, but doesn’t read
the Bible because she is Muslim. Her husband was also there and wanted a health
survey done on him, too. We agreed to have another visit with them to do the
health survey for him and to give her a massage and hydrotherapy treatment.
Jesus loves even the Muslims!”
And those were just a few stories of how the medical
missionary work – the entering wedge – has been successful for our PAFCOE
students! God has provided us the way to get into hard hearts to be able to
reach them for the gospel!
More stories will be posted soon! :)
