By Betty Dahlhausen

But God...

In October of 2022, the GFA medical missions team traveled to Comitán, Mexico, for five days of clinic ministry and evangelism. Our focus on medicine and dentistry is designed to bring spiritually needy people in contact with the Gospel. A 28-year-old man named Jesús came to the clinic to have two abscessed teeth removed. He was experiencing a lot of pain and looked miserable as he held both sides of his face in agony. During registration, he told us that he was a diabetic, so I checked his blood sugar on the glucometer; it was so high that it didn’t register, meaning that his blood sugar was over 500, a dangerously high measurement. He said that he hadn’t been taking his insulin because he couldn’t afford it. Jesús was also seriously dehydrated and desperately needed fluids. We needed to lower his blood sugar immediately.

We rigged up an IV, "missionary style" (rubber glove for tourniquet and IV bag tied to a fan post), and started him on fluids while Dr. Morales and Edwin went to the local pharmacy to buy insulin. They went to three different pharmacies, but there was no insulin to be found. There were some government mobile medical buses providing free medical care in town, so they checked to see if the medicine was in stock there—but again, no insulin.

But God . . . One of the employees at the clinic was diabetic, and he gave the messengers a vial of his own personal insulin for free! What an unexpected blessing from the Lord! His timing is always perfect!

We started the patient’s insulin immediately upon Dr. Morales’ return and kept the sick man comfortable for the five hours or so that he was rigged up to the medication. Don’t forget that at GFA, our priority is evangelism first, medicine second. Since Jesús was a captive audience, Pastor Morales had plenty of time to speak with him about the Gospel and his need for salvation.

But God . . . Jesús prayed to the Lord for salvation, and both he and Pastor Morales shed tears of joy. To make things even better, after his blood sugar dropped to a safe range, Dr. Mitchell pulled both bad teeth.

We thank the Lord that Jesús’ sugar was checked before his dental procedure. If his teeth had been pulled with his sugar out of control, it's likely that Jesús would have died later that evening of DKA, diabetic shock. Again, God’s timing is always perfect! For more reasons than one, Jesús left the clinic that day with a big smile on his face, and he wasn’t the only one; along with the whole clinic staff, there was a host of angels in the heavenlies praising God (see Luke 15:10).