Though the weather was changing with the arrival of fall in South Africa, the sun was a welcoming sign for a good day of outreach at our blood pressure monitoring ministry across from the Delft mall. A tall, thin, erect, and spry lady smiled broadly as she took a seat to have her blood pressure taken. Her wizened, deeply wrinkled face belied her vitality. She carried herself with an air of culture and sophistication and prided herself on her excellent health and good fortune to have met and married Mr. F.
Her health history was insignificant except for a severe cerebral vascular accident five years prior that had left her comatose for a time and bed-bound thereafter. “They said, at Groote Schuur [the provincial hospital where Dr. Christian Barnard had performed the world’s first heart transplant in 1967], ‘You will never walk,’ but look at me!” Her rehabilitation had been remarkable. Today, I hoped to see her consider more than her physical health and her completely normal blood pressure. When I shared the tract, “The Bridge to Eternal Life,” she countered, mentioning her Anglican Church infant baptism, confirmation, and membership, but surprisingly, she added, “I will come to your church tomorrow.”
We hear this so often that we are always surprised when people keep their word. The next morning, however, she was at our service in another pastel-colored, polyester pant suit. She listened intently and seemed to enjoy our service. When I visited her a few days later to follow up on her visit to church, she told me that she liked our church. “It was homey!”