She is quiet. She is often in the back of the room, cleaning up behind the church members and visitors. She is not timid, but gentle. There is a humble strength that resembles Jesus. She doesn’t teach every Bible study she attends, but she’ll sit and listen to the Word of God, eyes closed tightly as she prays to her Father.  

But when she speaks of Christ, you can see the power. You can see the love in her heart for her Savior who redeemed her, even though He didn’t heal her.

Lorijane was born without a right foot. She has no bone in her right leg and it has no feeling. She has walked with a crutch her entire life.

She has prayed for healing. She met with doctors about getting a prosthetic leg, but she was told no. She knows the Lord is capable of healing her, but He doesn’t. And even though He doesn’t, she chooses to follow Him every day, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose outside the furnace.

“If you throw us into the hot furnace, the God we serve can save us. And if he wants to, he can save us from your power. But even if God does not save us, we want you to know, King, that we refuse to serve your gods” (Daniel 3:17-18 ERV).

Difficult Past

For years, Lorijane’s struggles defined her. It wasn’t just her physical struggles, but her emotional ones. Her parents divorced when she was young, leaving her in the care of her alcoholic father.

“The bitterness in my heart was so extreme because I have broken family,” she remembers. “My mother left me. I lived with my father. And my father is a drunkard. Many times, he would not come back in our house because he was so drunk.”

She suffered bullying and harassment from both classmates and their parents. She had no emotional or spiritual support at home. Her father was raised in the Catholic church but did not have a relationship with Jesus. Once, he caught her reading a Bible and slapped her so hard across the face that she didn’t read the Bible again for years.

But even though she wasn’t reading Scripture, she cried out to God

“I thought that if there is God, I want to question Him,” she says. “I want to ask, ‘if you are real, God, why did you make me like this?’ I wish that everyone was like me so that nobody can bully me anymore. If there is a God, I wish that every family was also broken so that all the children would know how I feel and how it hurts so much.”

Four different times, Lorijane attempted suicide. She drank gas from a lamp and cut her wrists.

“I wanted to die because I was so tired of living.”

But God didn’t let her die. God saved her life every time she tried to end it because He had such big plans for Lorijane. He made her, fearfully and wonderfully, and He knew His child would do amazing things for Him.

Defining Moment

In her third year of high school, while sitting in a church service, Lorijane submitted her life to Christ. She remembers that day like it was yesterday.

“I cried heavily. I told the Lord, ‘I give up. I surrender my life to you. I offer my life to you, Lord, give me a new heart, a new mind, and give me your spirit so that I am able to see the good things that you have done in my life,’” she says tearfully. “Then after that experience, I was just like a newborn baby. My hatred, my self-pity were gone. All the fear, all the heartaches were gone.”

That day changed Lorijane’s entire trajectory. She was once defined by her physical and emotional scars, but now she took on new definitions. Daughter. Chosen. Fearfully and wonderfully made.

A Big Calling

She was eager to work for the Lord. She isn’t a singer or a preacher, so she had no idea how God would use her. She heard a verse from Isaiah that touched her heart and became her life’s mantra.

“Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, ‘Who can I send? Who will go for us?’ So I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’”  (Isaiah 6:8 ERV)

Send me. Send me, Lord. She didn’t say “I am too broken to be sent” or “how will I go with my leg?” She never said, “I had a bad childhood, I can’t help anyone.” She asked to be sent. Despite her shortcomings, she asked God to send her.

“Whatever I can, I will do it for you Lord because you are a big God. You are the big God who called me,” she says. “You're God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You are so faithful God. And you are the one whom I serve now, and you will never change.”

God has taken that obedience and used Lorijane in miraculous ways. Today, she leads more than 50 Bible studies in homes across Wao, one of the poorest areas of the Philippines. Six days a week, she travels by foot around her community to host small group Bible studies, guiding people through the Word of God.

 The Gospel Spreads

News of her studies spread like wildfire.

“People are waiting whenever I am going to the house fellowship,” she says. “They're waiting in their house praising and praying and studying the Word of the Lord.”

Though she has the hope and peace of the Lord, Lorijane’s calling isn’t without challenges. Many still stare at her and children still make fun of her because of her leg. But she uses it as an invitation.

“When I'm going to my Bible studies I always say that God created you with a perfect body and God created me with imperfect one. But I believe that the Lord has a purpose in my life,” she says. “I am so grateful and blessed because of my situation, He's using me. But if you are not serving the Lord, your two feet are useless.”

True Inspiration

People across the community are drawn to the studies to hear the Gospel. And they are inspired by the obedience of Lorijane. Many have the same thought: if she can serve the Lord in her condition, why can’t I?

Lorijane and her pastor, Gloria, both attended Bible League’s Church Planter Training, a course designed to help pastors and church leaders grow their small groups into thriving congregations. The Bible League materials you provide have created such strong disciples that many are ready to be trained to be leaders like Lorijane.

Her story is one that reminds us all that God created us perfectly for the job He has for us. It’s not our physical, mental, or emotional capacity that makes us candidates for God’s work. It’s God who makes us capable. Whatever season you are facing today, whatever struggles you see ahead, know that you were fearfully and wonderfully made for this. Do not let fear, insecurity, or pain hold you back from the work God has called you to do. 

“Use your body as the instrument to glorify the Lord. Use everything that you have, your talents, everything that you have,” Lorijane says at the end of our interview. “Use it for the glory of God. I am not perfect, but the Lord is using me for your life.”