A FIELD OF FACELESS NEEDS
by Erwin Bourne—March 13, 2002
Walk through the market places of the world. There’s
a similarity of faces, whether in Guatemala, Mexico
City, or Guadalajara. There is a blank stare, an
empty gaze, a hopeless expression. The needs are
faceless. There’s the orphans in Bangladesh, the
abandoned in New Delhi. Hopeless humanity! And there
are crowded nursing homes—understaffed. And you see
the pool.
It is the pool of Bethesda with five covered porches.
Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed lay on
the porches (John 5:1—15). Jesus walks among the
suffering—between the beggar and the blind. Most
people just walk past. But not Jesus! What are we
doing? We can become worn out with serving.
Missionaries know this as compassion fatigue. Jesus
singled out a man who had been sick for thirty-eight
years. Half a lifetime.
We run into a mass of difficulties in trying to help
others. An indigenous woman and a youth came one
night accompanied with a nurse. They came by boat
from a distant village. We gave them lodging at the
Casa Grande. The next day the native nurse took the
others to the hospital, later returning with them.
She said that the boy needed further treatment. With
that she disappeared, evidently returning to her
village. The muchacho was strange. Sometimes he
could walk, at other times he staggered. Four days
later a man appeared saying he was the father of the
boy. He was on a canoe trip to a village in Brazil
and would return later. We protested. No, you take
them with you now. Reluctantly he consented and our
strange guests disappeared.
Walking among the crowd of sick people, Jesus singled
out a man and asked him. “Would you like to get well?”
What a question for a man sick for thirty-eight
years. His answer was hopeless. “I can’t sir…for I
have no man to help me into the pool….Someone else
always gets in ahead of me.”
The lame man didn’t know to whom he told his pitiful
tale, but when he was told, “Stand up, pick up your
sleeping mat, and walk!” his faith believed. Sick
for thirty-eight years—instantly healed!
Surely the others in this crowd of sick folk at the
pool who witnessed this miracle. Why didn’t they cry
out for help? Were they afraid of the Jewish leaders?
Not this fellow! He testified that it was Jesus who
had healed him.
—Erwin and Jean Bourne