In a remote region of Mozambique, where hospitals are hours away and access to medical care is nearly impossible, there was a woman on the edge of despair. She lived alone, tucked deep within a rural neighborhood few visit. Her body was failing her, and the nearest hospital felt impossibly far away.
Lourenco, a nurse practitioner and faithful member of our medical outreach team, encountered her during one of his regular visits to serve the forgotten. She had a severe wound on her foot that was festering and already attracting maggots. When she saw him, her words were urgent and heartbreaking: “Please cut off my foot.”
He took her hand instead and said, “Let’s pray.”
He shared with her that her foot could still be saved. "We prayed, and I told her God would heal her," he said. Her wound was from very advanced HIV, but she didn't even know she had the disease. "I convinced her to go to the hospital for treatment of the severe infection."
He even paid her way to get there, and she stayed in the hospital for a full month.
When she was finally discharged, she came to see him. She was walking again, and her heart was overflowing with gratitude. She said, “Thank you for everything you did and have been doing in our community. Keep helping people. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be alive now. You saved my life.”
But his response reflected the heart behind this ministry: “I didn’t save your life. Your faith did. It was God who saved you.”
She now understands not only that she has HIV, but that it's manageable with consistent treatment. Lourenco encouraged her to continue taking her new medication and reminded her that hope is found not only in medicine, but in the One who heals the heart, soul, and body.
Her words moved Lourenco deeply, and for the rest of us, they're a reminder that in places where hope feels distant, God still shows up—sometimes through a prayer, sometimes through a nurse or doctor, always through faith.
To everyone who prays for this ministry, gives sacrificially, or simply shares our stories, this is your impact... you helped save a life.
