Cuairt a Thabhairt ar Ospidéal (Hospital Visits)

 

One of the things I was not expecting about being in the hospital was divine appointments.
Silly me – I should know better by now, right?

Throw all expectations out the window, even when you’ve been admitted as a patient into a hospital.

 

It all started the day I was admitted (this past Friday).

I think that is when it started – you’ll have to forgive me if I get this stuff out of order, as most of my time in Ireland is a huge blur.

Amanda Glenn met and prayed with a woman named Anne while she was visiting Rachael (one of my squad mates, who also happened to be in the hospital with malaria), and me.

 

That evening, Anne came over to my bed to chat for a few minutes.

She shared with me about how she turns everything over to the Lord, and how He always makes things right in her life.

Great encouragement, right?

And I needed it, because my squad was leaving the next day for Romania.

I wanted to get on that plane with them, but there was no way that was going to happen.

So I had to take it to the Lord, along with the lingering fever that just would not go away.

 

Saturday morning, Anne came over and encouraged me again.

They were the same words, but I must have needed to hear them again, because Anne was more than willing to share a second time.

 

That afternoon, when I was feeling better, I wandered over to Anne’s bed (yeah, she was a patient, too).

Rachael was already there, so I sat down on the bed beside her as Anne sat in her chair, and we just talked.

I finally got to hear why Anne was in the hospital, and some of her story.

 

Twenty-six years ago, Anne delivered a stillborn daughter, and she prayed that God would give her another child after that.

He heard her prayers, and three years later another daughter was born.

Anne was in the hospital this time because of an aneurism in her brain.She was supposed to be released on Monday (the day I was originally supposed to be released on).

 

So, Sunday morning, as the doctors were preparing my discharge papers, I prayed with Anne (as she had sought me out for in the first place).

I also prayed with Tina (the woman in the bed next to me) and Kaye (a family member).

Saturday afternoon, I had also gotten a few minutes to chat with Kaye about Tina and what was going on with her – Tina has Down Syndrome, and was in the hospital for bronchiitis.

If I had not gotten sick with malaria, I never would have had either opportunity (not that I am recommending getting malaria…).

 

I’m not exactly thankful for getting as sick as I did, but I am more than thankful for the divine appointments waiting for me in the hospital.

And I don’t know what will come of it, but I trust God has heard my prayers, and that Tina and Anne both will be completely healed.

In Jesus’ Name.