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EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

It was 2015 and we were weary travelers, Greggy, myself and my sister, so we pulled off the freeway in Perry, Oklahoma. Though short, we had a restful night’s sleep.

They provided a nice free breakfast, and so we took advantage of it. We sat near a woman who started up a conversation. She had a son her momma’s heart ached for and shared his journey. She was very bold and — knowing we were Christians (I would guess because we prayed for the gravy and biscuits, though some of the details are not totally as sharp now) — asked me if I would pray for her son every day of the rest of my life. Bold. Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t commit to this. Thus I said I would pray when the Holy Spirit brought him to mind, which is occasionally even eight years later.

Cleaning up the tables and working hard nearby was a beautiful, brown-skinned, thin woman. When conversations ended, she approached. She asked about my sister and fell in love with her. Later she would go to Walmart to buy her a monkey as she loves monkeys. We took pictures, and a strong bond was born.

On another visit she gave Rosa a big bag of candy and had her two boys draw her pictures. After the short interaction that day she asked if we would pray for an employee’s little 2-year-old daughter whose life was hanging by a thread. She had been at the hospital all night with the family. Tradition in India is to buy milk from farmers and boil is twice so it is safe to consume. Unfortunately this young momma in Oklahoma didn’t know about the “boil twice” rule and bought milk from a farmer at a local store and gave it to her daughter. Thus E. coli enraged her little body.

“Yes, of course we will pray,” we said. Based on more conversation we knew our faiths were different; thus, we communicated we would pray to Jesus for her healing.

His name is powerful, and his ways are enduring.

“The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.” — Psalm 41:3, NIV

Read the rest of this story next week.

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, a momma, a nana, a friend and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.