Thursday, July 30, 2026From the news

The Medal She Has Never Held

Even when the prize we earned stays out of reach and home feels forever lost, the Lord remains our near refuge and holds us securely in His love.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

Nearly five thousand miles from home, somewhere in a drawer in Cameroon, lies an Olympic medal that belongs to Madias Ngake. She has never held it. Awarded seven years late after others were disqualified, that medal remains a quiet symbol of a life interrupted. At just twenty years old, after competing at London 2012, fear for her safety drove her to stay behind. She disappeared from the athletes’ village and stepped into months of sleeping on buses and streets, with no friends, no money, and no clear path. The glamour of the Games gave way to nights outdoors and the long, humble work of cleaning offices for nine years while she waited for papers and a chance to build something new.

Fourteen years later she stood on another podium, this time winning silver for England at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. The journey between those two moments is filled with loss, distance, and quiet courage. She left the land of her birth and the dreams she once carried for change there. She carried instead the ache of exile and the daily weight of starting over from nothing.

Many of us know something of that ache. Perhaps not in the same details, yet we have known seasons when the place we called home no longer felt safe, when a reward we worked for stayed out of reach, or when the days stretched long and unnoticed. In those places the words of Psalm 46 meet us gently: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” He does not stand far off watching our hardship. He is the shelter we run into when the night is cold and the future unclear.

The Lord is also near to the brokenhearted. Psalm 34:18 assures us He stays close when spirit and body feel crushed. Madias spent years simply surviving—cleaning floors, waiting, putting the bar down and walking away from the sport she loved. Those ordinary, unseen years were not wasted in His sight. When the time came, a former coach’s encouragement stirred her to lift again, and what had once felt natural returned. Strength was renewed. Opportunity opened. Funding arrived so she could train full-time. None of it erased the medal still sitting in a foreign drawer, yet it revealed a deeper truth: the God who upholds us does not forget the years of faithful endurance.

Isaiah 41:10 speaks straight into the fear that drove her decision and the fear that can still rise in any of us: “Do not fear, for I am with you… I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Take heart. The same hand that held her through street nights and quiet labour holds you. Your true refuge is not a country or a podium or a medal you can finally grasp. It is the living Christ who knows every mile of exile and every tear of starting over. He is present help. He is near. And in Him the story is never finished at the point of loss. Let us rest today in that steadfast nearness, trusting that the One who sees the unseen years is already writing the next chapter of mercy.