What’s a [Western-Trained] Medical Person To Do?

A few months ago, I sort of got “volunteered” to talk with a couple women, who are each married to an ACTION Pastor’s College pastor, regarding some medical questions or concerns they had. It seemed like an interesting opportunity, and, boy, was I right!

The first lady I met with described a lump in her groin that she’s had for several years, on and off. She has never gone to a clinic, because in doing so, she would demonstrate lack of faith in God’s healing power. So, she simply prayed. Her husband prayed. She even had elders in their church come and pray over her lump. The funny thing is that whenever the lump was prayed over, it would get smaller in size. Whenever people stopped praying, it would get bigger. She’s never had any pain associated with it. But it just is always there – either bigger or smaller. And the last I heard, she had started anointing her lump with oil and praying over it…and, of course, it was getting smaller.

The second lady I talked with told me about a dream she had over 10 years ago. In her dream, she slept with another man, besides her husband and, when she looked into his face, realized he was a witchdoctor. According to this woman, ever since that dream, she has not had any sensation during intimacy with her husband. She went to the clinic for testing (they just happened to accidentally mix up her lab work with another person’s, but “they were very confident” that they got everything sorted out…and treated her for a yeast infection) and even birthed babies since then. Just no sensation to this day.

Of course, I asked lots of questions, both physical and spiritual. In the end, due to my limited medical knowledge, I encouraged them both to see a good doctor and keep praying. And I walked away scratching my head, wondering what to think about each of their problems, all the while knowing that behind these 2 pastor’s wives are millions of Zambians with their own unbelievable stories.