We are officially in Kenya! The last few days have been a lot of debrief time and sessions with Mike and Kathy Hindes. Where we are staying we wake up every morning to look out on the beautiful mountains that surround us. It is breathtaking.
We have had a few ministry opportunities during debrief. One of those opportunities is going to the local hospital and praying for people. Today I went to the hospital and met and prayed for some amazing women. I want to share with you about three in particular.
The first is a woman named Lydia. When we walked into the room where she was staying the chaplain instructed us to pray for a women who spoke English, Susan. We talked with Susan for a while and then prayed with her. After we were done we turned around to Lydia who’s bed was right next to Susan. Susan helped us translate and we found out that Lydia had breast cancer. Just two days earlier she had gone into surgery to have a breast removed. I was walking around the hospital with two other girls from the squad, Summer and Janina, and we were all touched by Lydia’s story. We knew she didn’t speak much or any English, but we proceeded to pray for her. The moment Summer started praying the tears began to fall from Lydia. As we continued to pray all four of us were crying. I was holding Lydia’s hand while we prayed and from where it was positioned I could feel Janina and Lydia’s tears falling onto my hands. It reminded me so much of the fact that God catches every tear that falls from our eyes. When we were done praying all Lydia said to us was “Assanti” which means “thank you” in Swahili.
The second women I want to tell you about was Ruthie. Ruthie was in the hospital because she had diabetes. She was actually taken to the hospital when she was in a diabetic coma by her neighbors. She has no family around her because last year after the Presidential election there was wars between the different tribes. Ruthie’s family all went different ways and she was the only one to remain. So, her neighbors have been taking care of her and watching after her. After we talked for a while we asked if we could pray for her. She told us that we could, but she immediately rolled onto her side, put her hands under her cheek, curled into a ball and closed her eyes. We thought maybe she had changed her mind and she wanted to go to sleep. She turned to the pastor who was with us and told him that she was getting ready for us to pray for her. She received pray curled in a ball on her side like a little child. It was the most precious sight to see an old woman laying on her side in complete innocence before God.
I don’t know much of anything about the last woman I want to tell you about. I don’t even know her name. Right when we walked into her room I knew I wanted to talk to her. I went up to her after a nurse was done getting her temperature and kneeled beside her bed. I could tell right away that she was very young, probably a teenager. She was also so incredibly small. As I was kneeling beside her I soon found out she knew no English at all. So I just looked into her face. I saw complete and utter fear. She had no idea who I was or what I was doing. All she saw was a startlingly white girl kneeling beside her. I knew she had no idea what I was saying but I just kept looking at her and praying for her. I had my hand on her arm and I saw my white skin by her black skin. It was beautiful! The pastor tried to talk to her later but realized she was from the Massi tribe and spoke her tribal language.
It was so hard going out of the hospital knowing that some women had not been prayed over or talked to or understood. I have to keep telling myself that God knows them. God knows their needs more than I ever will.
