After we left the psych ward we went up the surgical ward. That was a bit awkward at first for me. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. How do you approach people that are very sick and possibly without hope? I wasn’t sure. I went to the room on the left and Mary was there. I decided to pray with her even though there so many people. I didn’t feel ready to go on my own. We went from bed to bed when I noticed a large gathering around one bed. We were praying for a sweet old man, when I heard this silence. It was a silence with weight and Mama Terri told us that a man had died. We looked at the bed and saw a family member of his just loose it.
I prayed for her and her family. Anna reached out to her but she pulled away. We all decided to leave after this, the room was soo heavy. My heart broke for the wailing women. In a moment it was like I could feel her despair. I asked God what was the purpose of us being there…Jesus raised the dead and he said greater things we would do than he. Jesus gave comfort to the those in pain. Jesus didn’t walk out of a hospital ward because he couldn’t take the heaviness and felt lost. But I did.
God is greater than all of us though. He wanted to give comfort to the women and Mary found her a little bit later and gave her a hug. Praise The Lord.
The next ward was the hardest. We walked into the children’s ward and the first girl I see is so little and on a breathing machine. Her little lungs couldn’t breathe on their own. I didn’t know what to do, so I walked by. I went to a different bed and prayed with Kris over two little kids. I walked through the next section and into the last part of the ward. There was a baby on the bed so tiny, so weak. I almost burst into tears right there on the spot. He was on his side and when I stopped, he looked up at me, but his movements were so slow. I put my hand out and he opened up his little hand, stretched it out. It was at this painstakingly slow rate like it hurt to move. It was as if there was no strength left in his body, but he wanted comfort, he wanted a hand to care.
His mom came a bit later and we prayed for her and her three kids, two who needed to be in the hospital. I walked over to the bed next to them and there was a toddler not moving. She had AIDS and wasn’t doing very well, her sister was watching over her and I found out that their mom had abandoned them. Two week s after her daughter was born the mom left and her older sister was taking care of her. It broke my heart to see someone so young with so much responsibility. It put things in perspective.
I was about to walk out of the ward when I saw Chad praying over the little girl hooked up to the machine. I knew I had to stop and pray with him. It felt like we prayed for so long and I wanted to see God perform a miracle soo badly. This little girl had flies landing on her, her eyes looked glassy and I couldn’t tell if she was sleeping with her eyes open or if she was just incoherent to her surroundings. Her father was crying next to me trying to stay strong and be the man, but his love for his little girl was overwhelming. I prayed for him and his family. We prayed and prayed and nothing changed. I hope that we could have at least brought a bit of hope and strength to her family.
We went to the women’s surgical ward next. I prayed for few women and then decided to leave. I was worn out and I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. As I reached the doors I decided to pray over the entire place and I while I was praying the bed next to me had a women who was staring at me. Mary was praying with her and the woman looked straight at me and reached her hand out. I walked over to pray and found out she had Malaria. She was so hot to touch, like she was fire and it burned. Her fever had her at the point of desperation. And for the last time that day I felt the hopelessness of not know what to do. We prayed over her and she chanted Jesus and God intermittently. Chad came over and when he started to pray the atmosphere changed. I felt the Holy Spirit and we prayed with renewed vigor. We helped the women drink some water and parted ways.
