This week we were able to go on hospital visits and each day we would visit a different ward and pray and speak some life into those patients and families. Now, hospitals here in Africa (well at least in these smaller towns) are much different than those in America. Here, the family basically feeds the patients and helps them bathe and everything. There is no air conditioning or separate rooms- everyone is basically in the same room and the babies there are on beds just like the adults are. The hospital here is much nicer than the one at our last ministry site.
Anyways . . . now that you have a small picture as to what the medical care here is like and a small taste as to what the patients experience . . . here is what I saw the other day.
We went into the children's ward and as hard as it is to see these little children with the health problems that they have, I just love praying for them. So, we go in and are in 4 different groups and start to go down the aisles of hospital beds praying for these precious children. Of course the first thing we ask is how we can pray for them. And the families tell us the symptoms but not actually what was the cause of it all- and once we finally ask so many questions we discover the reason for why they are here. One of the little boys we prayed for was so joyous and was all smiles. You would just look at him and a HUGE smile would come across his face. Some of these kids were in there for breathing problems, malaria, because they were vomiting and such, but the one reason that break my heart beyond anything was malnutrition. I was in West Africa for 3 months on the World Race and saw a lot of kids with tapeworms in them and so little due to lack of nutrition. But what I saw at that hospital completely destroyed all that I had ever seen on the World Race. There was this little boy- no more than 2 years old at the most. He was so small that his bones were almost sticking out of his skin. He actually sat up and the fact that he could hold up his head surprised me. His head was so huge compared to the rest of his little body. When we asked the mother what was wrong, she told us some nonsense answer and we ended up asking the doctor what was going on with that little boy- malnutrition. Some other kids we ran into that day had the same problem- one little girl had a lack of vitamins and it was turning her skin a different color- all splotchy. Another little girl you could tell was malnourished and was so small.
Sometimes when I see things like this I cannot help but wonder where God is in all of this. He is the father to the fatherless, He is the provider, but then why are there kids in Busia, Kenya who are so malnourished that they are fighting for their lives and look completely unrecognizable as to how God created them to be. Sometimes I do not understand why God lets these things happen to little children but then it was when God reminds me that is what happens 
when sin entered the world. That this is why here in Busia, why in the world people need Him. It is then that I have to remind myself just who God is. And He IS the father to the fatherless. He IS the provider of all He IS Love. He IS holding these precious children in His hands and they have never left His sight or His side. That is who my God is! Despite circumstances, God remains the same and we can take faith in that! When we left the hospital that day I knew some healing took place even though I did not see any miraculous healings or the like. I know that God was in that hospital room and still is. I know that the room is changed forever because we took the presence of God in their with us! My prayer that day was that when we come back to that children's ward that no children will be in there because they are all completely healed!
Please continue to be praying for these children and for Busia! There are some hurting people who need to encounter the love of God!
