My Experience in the House of a Cat Lady

Today I helped facilitate a service project at a low-income elderly apartment complex for SLAM students as a part of their program. The three students I was paired with were new to elderly care and mostly stuck to the cleaning portion of the service project for the first few apartments we visited. This left room for me to sit and speak with many of the elderly that we visited, each with their own stories, hobbies, and pains.
I had a decision to make: I could either care for this woman or look away from the challenging reality that Jesus always engaged with those that were overlooked by society. After some quick cleaning, I sat on her chair and started asking her questions about her life, simple topics like cooking and children and her cat. I asked her if she was able to find any sort of community within her apartment complex and she essentially told me that after many friends made, she had watched a majority of them die. In this moment, and in many moments after, I had no idea what to say. How in the world do you help a person who has seen 40 friends come and go due to death?
My heart sank in that moment realizing I could do nothing for her, other than ask her about the living people in her life that she still held close. It reminded me of many things, mostly the fact that many people have dealt with insurmountable pain that I can’t even imagine dealing with in the lifetime. Yet, I was confronted with the fact that billions of people around the world experience this kind of pain and worse without anyone to remind them of their hope in the Lord.
In many ways I feel wildly inadequate to engage in cross cultural relationships, particularly with people that have suffered such pain. I remembered in that moment that the Lord is their healer, not me, but He has given me to tools to comfort people in pain when I can’t take it away. This woman stood as a reminder to me of the dependence I must have on the Lord in all that I do, the things I feel comfortable in and the things that I don’t. My heart was broken for all the women like her in the world, but I know that my God is close to the brokenhearted.
As we left, this woman asked for a hug from our team, and was overjoyed that someone would step into her mess and touch her with care. My prayer is that our conversation and the hug that followed was empowering for her and a reminder that the Lord is her truest friend, regardless of the friends that she has lost in the recent years. She helped me to remember that I may not have the ability to solve the problems of those I will be serving abroad, but I can hug them and give them confidence in God’s word. While I may not be as equipped as I will be one day, I know the Lord and that is enough for them and enough for me now.