We traveled mostly by train through the night arriving at each city by morning. After settling in, eating, and maybe resting a bit, we would often have blocks of time devoted to counseling & praying for the believers of that city.

One counseling session stands out because of the extreme circumstances of a particular situation. A young man, Artum, was born into a Muslim family. Later he came to be addicted to drugs, hard core drugs taken intravenously, but had his life radically transformed when coming to know Jesus. However, he had contracted HIV through needles sometime during his days of drug use.

Since the time of his deliverance, he has served in the rehab center his church runs to help others struggling with addictions. He is literally a warrior, pulling people on the brink of destruction into a place of hope. Even before I knew of this young man’s story, I was struck with his presence and strength. I guess the best way to say it is that spiritually speaking, he takes up space (even though he is physically slight) and I recognized right away he had faced and defeated some giants in his brief life (he is 29).

Recently, he had received a diagnoses that he had contracted tuberculosis on top of the HIV. From a medical standpoint, this is a death sentence and the doctor’s advice was for him to stop working in the rehab center, get things in order for his family and prepare to die. Up to that point, he had not taken the doctor’s advice and wanted to know what we thought he should do.

Understand that Artum already trusts God & believes Jesus is his healer – his question wasn’t will God heal, but rather in light of what I believe and in the context of the situation I face – how should I proceed?

It would have been easy to throw out a Christian cliche in response, but this young man deserved more than that – so for a few minutes – we just wept with him. We proceeded by acknowledging his unique perspective on the matter and asking him what was in his heart. His response was “to serve others no matter what comes”. We mentioned that it is a great act of faith to proceed down that path. I added that whether we have 4 months or 40 years, living as a warrior battling darkness and cherishing every moment we spend with our family, is the best way to live & insure against having any regrets.

The decision was made and you could see the refreshing & focus that came over Artum because of it. The course was now set and he had fresh direction about what to do & renewed resolve in getting it done. He would now put his hand to the task and trust God for the results. We ended in prayer but agreed to wait to pray for healing until the evening meeting.

At the evening meeting all three of us prayed for Artum, his wife & their daughter. I asked his wife if she agreed with his decision to continue serving others – she emphatically said she agreed. Later that night Artum’s mother approached me, a Muslim who had only attended the meeting to support her son, and I had the privilege of leading her in prayer to receive Jesus as Savior and – head covered and all – profess Christ as Lord.

Artum’s story inspires me to serve God & others more passionately but his story isn’t over. Please pray for grace & peace through his trials & full recovery from all sickness.

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