God Knows Lucas’s Address

Written by Mary Katharine Hunt

I’m always amazed at how God orchestrates specific encounters when I’m in the Amazon. It often feels as though He very intentionally places certain people in your path.

On my trip in May to the Western part of the Amazon, in Tefé, I experienced one of those moments.

That morning, I had been assigned to do house visits. I was told that our group would travel by speedboat to visit a young man with special needs. His mother came with us to show us the way, so during the boat ride, I sat beside her to hear her story.

Through a translator, I began to understand that her son, Lucas, had cerebral palsy. She told me that he could not walk and could barely communicate.

Immediately, I thought of one of my first trips to the Amazon years ago, when I met a young woman named Clarinha. She also had cerebral palsy. Clarinha lived near our conference center on the Rio Negro and was part of our special needs program, so our JMA staff and I often visited her and her family. Over time, she became like a Brazilian sister to me.

I pulled out my phone and showed Lucas’s mother a picture of me with Clarinha and my best friend, Kelly Minter. I told her that sometimes the world can make people with disabilities feel unseen or unimportant. But Clarinha was deeply important to us because she was deeply important to Jesus.

We loved her so much that after she passed away, we named one of our small boats after her so we would always remember and honor our sweet Clarinha.

When we arrived at the home, Lucas’s mother went inside and carried her 24-year-old son out onto the porch.

Earlier, I had asked her whether Lucas had a relationship with Jesus, and she responded, “I hope so.”

I explained that if Lucas had heard about Jesus and chosen to trust and follow Him, he would one day be with Jesus in heaven. And if he did not understand enough to make that decision, I believed Jesus still saw him, knew him, and loved him completely. I told her that one day, when all things are made new, Lucas would walk, run, and dance in the fullness of God’s healing.

As our small group gathered around him, I began speaking directly to Lucas. I told him that we had come from very far away just to see him. I reminded him that God knew exactly where he lived; God knew Lucas’s address, and He cared deeply for him and his family.

Then I asked Pastor Pedro, one of the jungle pastors in JMA’s Multipliers program, to speak to Lucas in Portuguese and tell him about Jesus in a way he might understand.

Pastor Pedro, tall and strong, almost like a Brazilian GI Joe, yet incredibly gentle, knelt down beside Lucas on that simple wooden porch and tenderly shared the Gospel with him. He spoke about the love of Jesus and how precious Lucas was to God.

At the end, Pastor Pedro placed his hand on Lucas and prayed over him. In that moment, I knew I was witnessing Jesus through this man.

I saw Jesus that day, kneeling low on a worn wooden porch in a remote corner of the Amazon, loving a vulnerable young man.

Sometimes the holiest places on earth are not grand cathedrals, but simple wooden porches where the love of Jesus reaches someone the world has forgotten.