Sep 10, 2025 Prescriptions of Grace

“While the doctors are prescribing medication, I am prescribing Bible verses,” Jackie said, smiling.   

Clinic days tend to be physically and emotionally draining, but ultimately the most rewarding.  

With long hours, usually outside in the heat, it’s the most time we spend with the community. We get to hear about their lives, their struggles, and their hearts.  

Our team usually covers testing for eyeglasses, blood pressure, and blood sugar readings, as well as a prayer station.  

That’s where Jackie was during our mission trip to General Santos, Philippines.  

“I worked in the clinic, but not as one of the clinical staff, so I didn’t do any checks or medical procedures. There was a need for someone in the prayer booth, so I volunteered. It was incredibly gratifying—I really enjoyed it. People would come with all kinds of problems, and they saw me as someone who might bring them hope. It was a very humbling experience. At the same time, it made me feel somewhat helpless, because I’m human just like they are. They come to me to ask God for help, and I wish I could tell them they can go directly to Him too, that He hears them and will answer. But they’re not always at that point in their faith yet,” explained Jackie.  

At home, we say, “Pray for me” so nonchalantly. It’s almost like answering “I’m good” when someone asks you how you are in greeting. It can feel reflexive.   

“Usually when someone at home would ask me to pray for them, I would pray a quick, routine prayer,” said Jackie. “But this was different. These were people in serious need, who really saw me as someone who could communicate with God on their behalf. I felt the weight of that burden. There were times when I ended up crying with them—the translator and the person asking for prayer cried too. The issues are so deep. It’s a good kind of burden, though, because you know you’re doing something meaningful for someone.  

“One woman had six children—all girls. She said she couldn’t sleep, and with that many small children, sleep is crucial. She worried about them so much. I tried to give her counsel and shared a Bible verse about Jesus’ peace (John 14:27)—not as the world gives, but a lasting peace. I told her to memorize it and claim that promise when she prayed at night.   

“There was also a boy, about nine years old, whose mother abandoned him when he was two. His father wasn’t active in his life. I asked how that made him feel, and he said, ‘Very sad.’ I gave him a Bible verse: ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then God will take me up.’ (Psalm 27:10). He didn’t have a Bible, so the interpreter found one, and we highlighted the verse for him. I told him to memorize it and repeat it whenever he felt sad.   

For others, I wrote the verses on paper, like a prescription.  

“The verses I shared are ones that have spoken to me, not necessarily because I’ve experienced the same things, but because God speaks to us through Scripture.”  

Jackie hadn’t intentionally memorized the verses she prescribed to people, nor had she personally leaned on them in her own life; it was as if those verses stayed in her heart for this very moment.   

She didn’t just hand out Bible verses; she showed them God’s grace, one prayer and promise at a time. Grace that meets people in their sleepless nights, their loneliness, and their pain. Grace that offers peace to a mother, the feeling of belonging to a child, and hope to the weary.   

While the clinic staff addressed physical needs, Jackie reminded each person that the greatest healing comes from the grace of Jesus—a gift that can never run out and continues long after the clinic tents are taken down. 

View more photos from our mission trip to General Santos, Philippines.