“I didn’t feel encouraged to move on… or to live. I even cut up my Bible and threw it away. I wanted to end my life.” Renbi Odyuo was left with a severely disfigured face and no hope to continue living after a life-altering car accident.
While returning from an event with his friends, Renbi’s car was hit by a fully loaded truck. He woke up in the ICU seven days later, realising he was the only one with the worst of the injuries. It took him some time to come to terms with the fact that his face was disfigured and even longer to finally look at himself in a mirror. “I was filled with shame and despair and was too embarrassed to go out of my bedroom,” he said remembering the pain he felt in those initial days.
After a harrowing time recovering physically, he started to accept people coming to pray for him, and encourage him. God opened his heart and Renbi decided to submit his life to Christ. “I started to give my pain and burden to Him,” he said recalling how his emotional scars, fears, and uncertainties began to fade away.
Renbi began to know the truth that Christ is his identity when he joined a Bible school studied God’s word in depth. The encouraging words of Isaiah 53:5 and Ephesians 3:20 describing God’s sacrifice and His power and love over us gave him the hope he needed to renew his mind. “That’s how the word of God started working in my life, and today I am not embarrassed of my looks.” These deeply moving words brought a spark in Renbi’s eyes as he said them!
Today, Renbi is working as a caretaker in Living Life Prayer and Healing Centre in Dimapur. God’s work in his life – his healing, both physical and emotional, his bravery and determination – are inspiring to many. As he continues to give all glory to God, Renbi encourages everyone he meets to believe in God’s power to renew and restore lives, no matter how dead a situation or dream may seem.
