The first few days of hospital ministry were most likely
what you would expect…we went from bed to bed talking with patients through a
translator, sharing the gospel with unbelievers and encouraged Christians. We prayed for the people we
encountered, both patients and family that were visiting and helping to take
care of their loved one. To be honest, it did not feel much different from
door-to-door evangelism; only at the hospital we had a captive audience.
Later in the week, we went to a different hospital here in
Mwanza. I was expecting more of the same…evangelism and prayer. After about one hour of praying for thin,
weak women who were suffering from malaria, we moved to the men’s ward. While
praying for the first of 16 men who shared the hospital room, I felt a strong
tug on my bag. The man in bed number 2 had a death grip on my bag, which
required his friend, a grown man, and myself to pry open. His friend held the
man down in his bed as he apologized and tried to explain that the malaria had
gone to the man’s head and made him crazy. As Nicole and I began talking to the man’s friend, the man
sat-up suddenly and said, in English, “You love me?” Nicole replied, “Jesus
loves you” and the man was confused, looking around to me and then the female
translator, wondering who was “Jesus”. I quickly said, “Yesu, Yesu loves you.”
(Yesu is the kswahili word for Jesus). The man said, “oh,” and laid back down. He had several more outbursts while we were praying for him and
our translator said she thinks he is possessed by demons.
The following day we went to the children’s ward. It was challenging to see the rooms
stuffed with beds, sometimes shared by two children suffering and helpless. My
heart ached for them and I wanted to hold them in my arms to try and comfort
them. Many were scared when I touched their hand, so I did not attempt to hold
them. Concerned mothers sat with their children and my prayers were for them as
well as the children. It is hard for a parent to see their tiny child suffer.
At least 20 of these feeble little toddlers were in the hospital with malaria.
One little girl however, who stole my heart was there for another reason. One
and a half year old, Joyness was at the hospital because she was born blind. I
prayed desperately for this small girl to be able to see the face of her
mother, who lovingly stayed by her side stroking her daughter’s leg. My eyes
filled with tears as I continued to pray for Joyness’ future. During this time,
Chris, my team leader, received prophetic words as he prayed. God told him that
this girl would never see, but that she would do great things for the kingdom
of God.
We visited the maternity ward next, where we prayed for 13
newborn babies, and by newborn I mean they were born that very day. In fact,
one little boy and his mother came from the delivery room while we were praying
over other babies in the room. As I prayed over this, still nameless, tiny boy
God gave me a vision of him as a grow man and said that he would bring peace. One
of the teeny girls I saw as a child of 10 or 11 and she was filled with hunger
and passion for God’s word. It was incredible to pray over these infants and
for a moment see them through God’s eyes. I was blessed with this uplifting
ending to our week of hospital ministry.
