Let me tell you about Lovemore. I don’t actually know how to spell his name, but it’s pronounced “love more”). He is one of our amazing translators here at Iris. His heart and passion is to listen to the Lord through the Spirit. It’s evident in everything he does. He is an example of every fruit of the spirit. On Wednesday of this week, the Lord used Lovemore to touch my heart.
I really don’t like doing hospital ministry. It makes me emotionally exhausted and sick to my stomach. I’ve never been a big fan of hospitals (which is funny because almost everyone in my family is in the medical field), but hospitals here are worse. When studying international affairs, corruption in post-colonial governments was a big topic of study, and Mozambique’s hospital system is a big example of this corruption. The doctors are on strike right now, so patients coming to the hospital can’t be diagnosed. The nurses will steal medicine that’s supposed to be free (ex. Malaria medication), and sell it to the highest bidder. Everywhere you go in the hospital it wreaks of stale urine. In the children’s ward one little girl, Inora, who had malaria and worms had diarrhea, but there wasn’t anything around to wipe it up. Most people would rather stay home and die, or go to a witch doctor (yeah, they’re real) than go to the hospital.
My team had gone to the hospital on Monday afternoon, and I was so sick from what I had seen that I couldn’t eat that night. When the time came to go back on Wednesday, I almost stayed back at Iris, but I knew I should go. My mom always had a saying when I was growing up about church and ministry that the times when you usually want to go the least, are going to be the best times for you. On this, I went to the hospital with a lot of prayer that the Lord would move. My team leader, Emily, and I were the last to arrive at the hospital, and we found Lovemore and the other girls team in the room where we had met Inora on Monday. We made the rounds of praying for children, and went into the hallway where more babies were “getting fresh air”. All of the faces were familiar. Almost every one of those children had AIDs as well as malaria. Some babies, like Paulo, were covered in sores and blisters. Paulo is 14 months, but looks like a 5 month old skeleton with skin because he’s HIV positive.
I was feeling heart sick, so I decided to ask Lovemore about these children and the high prevalence of AIDs, he asked us to step outside with him, and he just let lose about the spiritual warfare in this area. For 20 minutes he told us about witch doctors, “spirit marriages” to demons, and AIDs. With each of these stories, he told us an example of where the Lord had victory. He told us stories about praying for people and casting out demons. He told us stories about people being healed from HIV (with before and after blood test documents). Lovemore is genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s so sensitive to the words of the Lord. He walks in the authority that the Lord has given him.
Talking to Lovemore outside of the children’s wing of the hospital was why the Lord pushed me to go to ministry that afternoon. I see that authority and audacious faith in Lovemore. It’s an inspiration to keep pushing, to keep moving forward, and to grow. I am encouraged to know that people like Lovemore are here in Dondo. This area is so spiritually charged with light and dark. The veil between the natural world and the supernatural is very thin, and it’s amazing to see people like Lovemore walking in authority.
Feel free to contact me here, facebook, twitter (@emmabazinga), instagram (emmabru), or email ([email protected]). I’d love to hear from people who are reading these blogs.
A big thank you goes out to my supporters, friends and family. I am so blessed to be almost fully funded, and I feel fully loved by all of you. I'm currently at $14,500 something! yay! I'm almost there!
Until next time, peace out from Mozambique.
