Three Doors Down

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. – Acts 3:6

When reading this verse prior to living in Bolivia, I thought that the main focus was on the man’s walking. My feeling was that Peter and John were compassionate towards the man’s inability to walk that they healed him. Recently, though, God granted us the ability to have a firsthand experience that has changed our view point on this verse.

Beatrice is a lady in our church who, for the past few years, has had a problem with degenerative hips. Since arriving in Bolivia, we have seen her ability to walk diminish. Every Sunday, since we have known her, Beatrice has needed the strong arms of two people to get her to church. She only lives three doors down from the Heavenly Zion Church but it is still an impossible task for Beatrice to do alone. One day while in church, we felt like God wanted us to build her a walker. It was that same Sunday that we watched Beatrice be helped out of the church in a wheelbarrow because her hips hurt too much to go home. However, with all of Kevin’s construction background, he had never worked with aluminum. After a great deal of thought, Kevin felt ready to tackle the project. Using the heat of our gas stove to melt, bend and form the aluminum, we completed the walker. The metal was light enough (around 4 pounds), and sturdy enough, but the question still remained if it would work for Beatrice. The day after we completed the walker she didn’t show up for church. When we asked the pastor what had happened, he told us that Beatrice’s hips had gotten to the point that she could no longer come.

The next Sunday was the day, and we could hardly contain our excitement. The pastor walked us down to Beatrice’s house on the corner to deliver the walker prior to church. When she saw us she was very down hearted when she reminded us that she couldn’t make it to church. That is when we showed her the walker and explained how God loved her so much that he wanted us to build it for her. She was ecstatic as we taught her how to use the walker as she went from her house to the church. She shared that morning with the entire congregation how God had provided and taken care of her. You can imagine how we felt the next Sunday morning when she walked into church alone with her walker again sharing what God had done.

Reflecting on the verse in Acts now, we see that the main concern for Peter was not to provide a short term result, but instead enable him to be a living testimony to those around him. That morning that Beatrice received her walker, her reaction was very similar to that of the crippled beggar. She may not have been jumping and skipping, but she was certainly walking and praising God.