When I arrived to Ocean View, Cape Town here in South Africa, my prayer was that I leave here changed. “Whatever it takes Lord, I am not leaving here unchanged.” It was a big prayer to pray, I knew this going into it, but I also knew that by committing my life to the Lord, I was giving my life to Him to do with it as He wills. He won’t bring me more than I can handle, so why not pray big prayers? Why not open my life and fully trust in Him?
I write this blog during our last week in Cape Town, and I can say with full confidence, the Lord has been faithful to answer this prayer! First, He brought us to a contact family that is very led by the Spirit. We started learning from their example day one. Living their lives for the Lord, seeing that life is ministry. It’s not necessarily going by a schedule, but having structure to your days and allowing the Spirit to make it flow. I have really seen how the Lord uses everything to prepare and lead you to where you need to be next.
From the beginning of our time here, the Lord started revealing Himself! We set out for street evangalism the first half of the day every day of the first week. The first day we met some of the most amazing people! People that we were able to follow up with and hear more of their stories. Then the second day we set out to pray over different corners of the neighborhood and as we were walking we saw a man in the distance, barely able to walk, limping very badly and had his right knee and foot wrapped. My friend Heather felt the need to pray for him. He had gotten his leg caught in a cement mixer and it was injured pretty badly. We told him that our God is a God of healing and we believe that He sent us and wanted us to pray healing over his leg. His name was Randal, and he allowed us to lay hands on him, pray, and see the Lord heal his leg! The second we were done praying, Randal started walking and there was no pain! He was so amazed, as were we! The Lord showed his friends as well that were around, they were all in awe of the Lords work in that moment. He walked away, not even saying goodbye, shocked by what had just happened. We stood and watched him walk up the road without a limp. He then turned around and gave us an excited wave and we all praised the Lord for what we got to witness.
Just 5 minutes later, we met Corey, an older man with gout in his knees, which caused them to be very swollen. He told us of the pain that he had when he’d walk and how he wished to be able to run again. He too had faith that the Lord could heal him so we laid hands and spoke against the discomfort and that he would be free of pain and able to run. Sure enough, as we were talking to the next person the Lord brought to us, Corey RAN by us waving with a grin from ear to ear.
The next day, Wednesday, Joslyn, our host Bradley’s wife, came to our door and suggested we go to a near by beach called Fish Hoek for ministry. Why not?!? We’d love to spend the day at the beach! So we gathered our things and set out for the day. Soon after we got there, myself and three of my teammates felt the need to go and walk around the shops near by. We had been praying for what the Lord had for us there in Fish Hoek and He had given me a picture of a shirt with a wave on it and Heather a picture of a blue hat with white letters. JJ wanted to go to a shop where we had met a man named Tom, we just call it Tom’s Shop. We started walking toward Tom’s shop and thought, well why don’t we go see if the surf shop has the t-shirt I pictured. It didn’t have it, but when we walked out we saw a man wearing a blue hat with white letters. He had a cane and something was terribly wrong with his leg. He was limping very badly. We stopped to watch where he was going and he went to sit down near the side walk. So, we turned around and went over to talk to him.
His name was Claude, and a car had rolled over his feet 4 years prior, breaking most of the bones in his foot. Ever since then he has not been able to walk correctly because the bones did not heal right. We prayed for healing and restoration to his feet. After we prayed, he was a bit timid to walk with out his cane and we did not want to force him. So we let him go on his way, but stayed and watched as he crossed the road. Half way to the other side he quit walking with his cane and began walking faster. He was headed toward the train station, and after he got to the other side of the road, he walked normal to the entrance of the station. Before going in, he turned and waved at us with a big smile! The Lord did it again!
So come Thursday, my eyes were very open and ready for whatever the Lord had. Sure enough I was asked to join my teammate Ana to visit the hospital with Joslyn’s sister, Monique, for kidney dialysis. Now I’m thinking, the Lord is going to show us how He can give these patients new kidneys! Which He definitely can, but He had other plans that day. For the first hour and a half that we were there, I talked with Valerie, a fellow sister in Christ, whose 22 year-old daughter was there for dialysis and is still waiting for a new kidney. Valerie was such an encouragment to me while we talked, and I was excited to meet her daughter, Tamsen. After bidding farewell to Valerie, the Lord brought us to Sev, a man who had been taking care of his sister on kidney dialysis.
The Lord started speaking to Sev through Ana and I. Sev had grown up hearing about the Lord and going to church with his family, but just like all of us, Sev took a path that led him astray and he started living a life apart from Jesus. He was very open with us and shared some of the things he had been committing, he knew what he needed to do. The Spirit was definitely pulling at his heart and waking him up all through our conversation. We prayed a couple times with Sev and just sat with him and encouraged him. The fact that he could already see the way the Lord has moved in his life was so beautiful to hear. I believe the Lord will save Him and that I will see Sev in Heaven. He was right on the edge of jumping into the life the Lord has for him, and although we didn’t get to witness that day Sev confessing that Jesus is his savior, I have high hopes that he will or already has since then. Bradley and Joslyn know of him and have his number so they will be following up with him and walking along side him when he needs.
See (part 2) Saved a Life!
