Sitting just inside the gate admiring the birds, we’re making bets on when the PR person will actually come. “I say ten to 6,” Joe guesses. “5:27,” David chimes in. (visiting hours end at 6) For whatever reason, it’s more difficult than we thought to get the mzungus into the hospital so we’re forced to do the World Race thing-wait.
I’m sitting there waiting, tuning into Joe and David’s conversation about the rapture every now and again when out of the corner of my eye I see a young man before me, hand extended. Unsure of what exactly he wants, I shake his hand and turn to him. As I do that, he hands me a piece of paper. He is deaf, dumb, and an orphan thanks to a car accident that killed both his parents. The paper is a letter from a school he goes to that can no longer provide the funds for him. As I read this letter aloud to those with me, there is really only one thing we can do-pray. With no money in our pockets but a heavenly Father who can do so much more, we know what we have to do. Danielle makes the motions to explain what we are about to do and then we just begin to pray. We pray for his ears to open. We pray for his brain to function properly. We pray for the Lord to provide all his needs. We pray whatever we can think of to bless this young man, who we later find out is named Peter.
After Peter left us, we all look at each other and continue to pray a bit more. Lord, let them come to us.
Still waiting for the PR person to show up, some guy comes up to Andrea and says, “He wants you over there,” and points to the little shop behind us. Andrea turns to me, “Come with me?” We walk over to the little shop, a bit hesitant but curious as to what this man could possibly want. “Are you praying for people?” he asks. “Yes, yes we are.” “Come pray for us,” he says as he motions us to come into his itty-bitty store. We look at each other and then in we go. I’m still a bit nervous as Andrea asks him who they are (there’s another guy inside and a girl outside), if they love Jesus, and all that jazz but my heart is put at ease when he simply says he’d like us to pray blessings for his life, his store, and his family. I suppose I can see this as an example of people seeing Christ in us and just wanting a little bit of that. We proceed to pray for them and talk to them a bit about where we are from (he actually guessed I was from Chicago! Granted it’s probably the only place in the US he knows but still…) before we leave the little store and rejoin the group.
It’s now after 5:30, David has clearly lost the bet, when Pastor comes to tell us we won’t be going in today. Apparently we have to make a separate appointment or something. As we wait for them to set up the appointment for Monday, we see a man in a wheelchair pull up next to us. “We can at least pray for him,” Matt says. As Pastor goes to get permission to do so, Matt says, “Who needs permission? The Bible gives me that!” We got the okay anyway and the boys went to go pray for this man, David.
All in all, the day did not look like what we thought it would and we never did step foot in the hospital, but the Lord provided us opportunities to pray. He brought people to us like we asked for and we live in faith that our prayers made a difference. We may not have seen miraculous healings on the spot but you know what, that’s okay. It’s for God’s glory, not ours and I firmly believe that Peter’s ears will be opened, if they aren’t already, and we won’t even know because frankly, we don’t need to. I believe every prayer that came from our lips was heard by our Lord and will make a lasting impact in the lives of these people. I believe He sent these people into our lives and we were intended to meet in the way that we did. I believe we were never meant to step foot in that hospital that day because had we gotten in, we wouldn’t have met Peter or David or the men and woman from the shop. The Lord has His reasons and His timing and I believe it is better than ours.
So I thank you, Lord. I thank you for the way you had your hand in everything today. I thank you for the beautiful birds, the wonderful conversations, and the divine appointments. I thank you for always being by our side and giving us the words to say. To you be all the glory, forever and ever.
