So yesterday and today have been
pretty intense. I feel like it’s taken a
while, but I’ve finally been welcomed in to real Africa. Went to my first 5
hour church service. Rode a Boda-Boda (motorcycle) down a creepy dirt road in
the dark with a driver that didn’t speak English. I get the privilege of
walking a mile and a half to and from church and everywhere else we go (that
means I walk 3 miles a day AT LEAST- with dirt from the passing cars to appease
my appetite). People give us fruit as gifts (which is AMAZING). Life’s crazy here and I love it.
So yesterday we did ministry at a local hospital.
I know what your picturing- sterile, florescent lights, smells of latex- but
don’t because this was nothing like that. I didn’t really know what to expect,
but I can tell you this- I wasn’t prepared. Once we entered the security gate
there was an “outpatient” area outside crowded with at least 100 people. One
girl I talked to had malaria, who knows what the rest were there for.
On the way into the male ward we
passed a guy sitting on a mat with what looked like shoe string stitches in the
gash on his forehead. On walking in I felt instantly queasy. It smelled like
blood and… I’m not sure I want to know what else. There were emaciated men lying
on these metal cots, some covered with dingy sheets, some on ripped foam
mattresses. Before we were allowed to talk with any of the patients we were
introduced to the head nurse of the male wards. While talking to her I noticed
that the latex gloves she was wearing were quite nasty. I mean they were a
brownish shade with visible pieces of dirt or I don’t know what. By the time I
talked to the first patient and was praying for him I was almost positive I was
going to pass out. I’m standing there praying for healing for this man, while
in my head I’m praying “God please don’t let me pass out in here.” Everything
started to get dark as I got to “in Jesus name amen” and I ran outside. My
translator must have thought I was crazy. What’s weird is while outside I
decided to talk to head wound guy instead of going back in. He got saved. Maybe
it was God’s fault I almost passed out.
We went to a couple more male
wards, then to the female ward. I talked with one lady who was a Christian, had
a bit of a hard time communicating, but altogether it was good. Then I talked
to a lady who well… she didn’t have any clothes on. I’m not sure if this is a
regular occurrence, but my translator just trucked right along, keeping his
eyes glued to her face as we told her all about Jesus. When we asked if she
wanted to accept Jesus she said yes! So we prayed the sinners prayer with her,
then began to pray for her healing. Mid prayer she starts puking over the side
of her bed. Ironic.
Ok so it was a seriously weird day,
and I wanted to share with you. But you know what? 3 people I talked to got saved!!! Praise the Lord! I got to pray
and spend time with a lot of other people too. So as crazy as it was, I’m
really glad we went, and that God was able to use even weak stomached me to reach
people. I know the enemy would’ve loved for me to pass out and quit, and if I
had of those 3 people might’ve been lost. But guess what? Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world!
Oh ya and tonight I preached my
first sermon. I asked God what he wanted to say to the congregation and all I
got was “Heaven.” So I began my search through the Bible to find out what it
had to say about the subject. Did you know the word Heaven is in the Bible over
600 times? There was a lot of scripture to dig through, but after 8 hours of
rummaging I prayed God would just direct me on what to say. All together I feel
like I learned and was encouraged by my studies. We get to live forever with
God, the lover of our souls, in a place more beautiful than we could ever
imagine, free of pain and sorrow, in our new heavenly bodies. Sounds like a
sweet deal to me. Honestly I can’t wait to be there, to meet the one I’ve loved
and worshiped for so long face to face. Oh it’s going to be a glorious day!
