Hermelinda and her family.

Hermelinda was depressed, anxious, and sleepless as she aimlessly walked the streets of San Francisco, Paraguay in the cold darkness of night. Her family was concerned. Something was very wrong.

The one-year anniversary of her mother’s death was fast approaching, and cultural tradition called for the novena, a nine-day period of prayers for her tormented soul. Her mother, a follower of Christ, would not have wanted such prayers, but the neighbors and community would demand that the traditions be followed.

Hermelinda, who also calls herself a follower of Christ, was conflicted and that inner turmoil was manifesting itself in psychiatric and physical ways. So she turned to a local curandero (traditional healer) for help. She was told that her suffering stemmed from the soul of her dead mother, which had come back to earth to inhabit Hermelinda’s body.

My wife, Amy, an RN, and I have a medical evangelism and church-planting ministry in this unreached corner of rural Paraguay with our SIM teammates, Tony and Jean Floyd. With our mobile clinic, we and the local believers are able to reach out as a church body into surrounding communities with the love of Christ, to bring much needed medical care where there are no doctors.

We show God’s compassion for the poor and needy, while we sow his Word into their hearts through evangelism and preaching. We also see patients without charge two days a week at our home. We intentionally pray with our patients and share a message from God’s Word on each clinic day.

Hermelinda is an established patient of mine whom I have seen often at my home. I have also attended to her at the local government health clinic, where I volunteer another two days of the week. But this problem was much more serious than her high blood pressure. It needed a holistic approach. I prescribed medicines for her depression and anxiety, but what she really needed was a team of specialized consultants.

“Stinking thinking”

We called on the church, and multiple home visits were made by different members of the body. Hermelinda was directed back to the Word of God, and warned of the dangers inherent in consulting with curanderos. She received prayer and godly counsel. She came to church that week for the first time in a long time, and brought her entire family as well! She interrupted the Sunday prayer meeting, blurting out to confess to “stinking thinking” and begged for the prayers of the body. The church prayed for her and lovingly accepted her.

In Paraguay, as in other areas of the world where folk religion abounds, people mistakenly believe that while the Christian faith answers their ultimate questions about the universe and the afterlife, it does not contain the answers to their most immediate dilemmas. So they turn away from the church to find present meaning and future direction to control, by any means necessary, the spiritual forces and beings affecting their lives.

When Hermelinda finally turned to the church for answers, she found a healing community who wrestled in prayer with her for God to bring peace and understanding in the midst of her confusion. She found healing. And she found that God was there with her even in that deep pit of despair.

This trying experience has brought Hermelinda and her entire family closer to God and his Church. Instead of the traditional, nineday long novena, the believers in the family met four nights to pray, read from God’s Word, and sing. What a joy it is to see this young church living out its calling to compassionate care, and replacing old traditions with newer and more meaningful practices.

Charles Fielding wrote in Preach and Heal—a Biblical Model for Missions, “Church planting without care for the needy and healthcare without church planting are both forms of malpractice.” That’s the kind of malpractice I don’t ever want to be guilty of!

*Note: This article was originally published in Serving In Mission Together, issue 128.