Hospital Ministry: week 1

This past week we have been doing hospital visits in the afternoon from 4 to 6. When we started on Tuesday it was a brand new experience for me. My challenges were knowing what to say, accepting that I cannot do anything on my own because God is in control and will chose to heal to not to heal. I also struggled with feeling not needed because I am inexperienced and I don't speak swahili.  I also struggled with the ability to read the facial expressions of the Africans, my first day I didn’t see any happiness or hope in their faces, even when one woman asked Christ into her heart. 

The second day I found extremely rewarding, I saw much more joy on the faces of the patients and family members when we went to check on the ones we had prayed for the day before. Me and David took an interpreter to check on the mother that accepted christ on Tuesday. Her daughter who we prayed over was wide awake happy smiling, and the doctors stopped her treatment because she was better. PRAISE THE LORD! Also her mother (who had no expressions of joy the day before) was very happy and giggly, and proud to tell our interpreter that she had accepted Christ the day before 🙂 So God definitely knew exactly what I needed to see to encourage me further and build my confidence in hospital ministry. It was a great second day. 

Thursday was the a really awesome experience. God is definitely starting something deep in my heart that I am still trying to process. The first boy we prayed over today was 17, he's had a condition for the past 6 months where when he eats he throws up the food immediately through his nose. He could only lay down, he could not sit up or stand, and his legs were very swollen. His older sister and two older brothers were there with him and after we prayed our interpreter told them about the love Christ has for them and they all 3 made the decision to accept Christ right then and there!! It was so awesome!!! (David the patient was already born again) I was so happy and pleased with what God did in that family today, and so blessed to be a part of it. The rest of the patients we prayed for were already born again. The last patient that we prayed for had a loving wife who prayed with us, she was a strong believer who’s love for her near death husband broke my heart. Though she was praying in Swahili I could tell she was praying with every ounce of her being truly believing in God’s healing grace. 

At 6:00 when my team was done praying for patients we gathered like we always do in a circle and said one final prayer. We were outside of the children’s ward where we  gather and pray every day. Afterward a woman called me over to her (she was holding her baby girl in her arms) She said something in swahili that I did not understand, So I said all the swahili I know “Habari” (how are you?) which she replied to then told me her name (I cant remember it) I told her my name, she understood. Then she said another long sentence in swahili that I did not recognize a single word of. So I called over my african friend/translator Cornell to tell me what she said. When she spoke to him all I understood was the words sickle cell. My heart broke. Up to this point for all I knew she could be asking me a question about america or my outfit. She wasn’t. She was asking me to pray over her 2 year old son with sickle cell. Me, not my translator, not my leader, not one of my team mates. This woman was asking me to come lay hands and pray over her sick child. I followed her into the very back of the children's ward where her son David was sharing a bed with another baby. There were sick babies and desperate mothers everywhere. My heart was breaking. David woke up and cried a little when I sat down on the bed next to him, but when I laid my hands on his sick little body to pray he stopped. I prayed my heart out, I gave a piece of my heart today to David and his mama that I will never get back. I prayed and I prayed, and I will continue to pray. When I looked up cornell was with me, he told me that the other women on the four beds around us wanted us to pray over their sick babies as well. Cornell and I prayed over them, It was now past 6:00 when visitors are supposed to leave, but we could not go anywhere. When Cornell and I finished praying for the four beds of children we walked a few steps and cornell got many more requests for prayer. He told them that we did not have time to pray for each child individually so me and Cornell said we would pray over the entire room of children (and ward). We raised our hands stretched over the room and began to pray. As we did so mamas began to pray with us. God was working so powerful in that room I can not even explain. The mothers and family members had so much faith and hope in God. They had to, he is the only one that can heal their babies. I still do not know why God had me go into that ward and pray, but I praise Him for doing so. He has broken my heart, that is what I asked him to do, that is what he did. I have seen hope in the hopeless, love in the broken hearted. God is doing something big in me, and He is doing something very big in that room me and Cornell prayed over. I have never experienced anything like that. I am used to being ignored when we go and pray for patients, usually only the patient and family member who Love the Lord are the ones who pray with us and the rest of the room ignores us. Not today, today the room was filled with moving lips. David’s mother was such a testament of faith to me today. She saw that we were praying and knew that she wanted her son prayed over. She knows God’s power, she knows he is the one who can heal her son. Hospital ministry works because people going through something difficult or impossible to fix with medicine must turn to God. God is so good, I am so thankful for Him taking me into that children’s ward. 

The next day when me and few others got to the hospital before everyone else I decided to go check on my little David. After giving a few rounds of high fives to the boys in the broken leg area I made my way to his bed in the back. He was happy to see me and I greeted him with lots of tickling. I was trying to talk to his mother without an interpreter and was able to get that David was being released! She showed me his release form and said all she had to do was pay and he was good to go home. Praise the Lord! Later that day I went to go check on big David and talk to his brothers and sister again, but he was not there. Praise God because he was already sent home earlier that day! God has been doing such amazing things in our ministry at the hospital this past week!!