Our ministry team started doing house visits in St. Francis this week since the afterschool program finished last week. Let me just say that it’s been incredible and God has been working profoundly in the community. We’ve met a few families in the community earlier on, but haven’t had much time to visit them. But now our number one focus is relationships with people in the township.
Andrew, Faith, and Christina first met Ellen, a lady with cancer, many weeks ago. On this first encounter, they described her as downtrodden and weary. They prayed for both the cancer and for her spirits to be uplifted. As soon as they finished praying, her face was brighter and they watched the cancer diminish from her. Each time we see her, her spirits are higher and the cancer appears to be receding from her face.
One day last week, Christina and I went to visit Ellen, but instead met an older couple named Christina and Samuel. They are a beautiful couple who lost their only son many years ago. They have a basic understanding of who the Lord is, but wish to know more. On this first visit with them, Samuel couldn’t move from his bed because of an old stab wound from 3 or 4 years ago. Even after such a long period of time, the wound was still oozing and this was keeping him from work. He also was extremely mellow and not talkative. We’ve visited them a few times since and it’s amazing the difference in Samuel in only a week and a half! Today was his first day back to work and he can use his arm a little better than before. He was full of smiles and giggles and pure joy because of what the Lord has done and because of our friendship to him. Something else really cool about them is they told us in their broken English that they see Jesus walking with us.
Today (Thursday) we ventured out into a different part of the township and experienced one of the hardest things I’ve witnessed since being here. We prayed that God would show us where to go and who to talk to and he spoke three things to us: a mossy green color, a shack, and to follow the wind. So, we walked in the direction of the wind and saw two women sitting in front of a shack, one on a mossy colored chair. So, we went and talked to them. Somehow it came up that one of the women has a baby, so she brought us inside and we took turns holding the baby, which was 3 months old, but looked like a newborn. Both of these women were extremely drunk and kept talking about how they wanted our clothes. The mother of the baby was being much too forceful with her baby when trying to play with it because her judgment was so impaired. Something did not feel right about being there; I couldn’t wait to leave. There was a man lying on a bed that clearly had AIDS and was close to death. I couldn’t even see the form of his body. His head was poking out of the blankets, but I’m sure it would have been a skeleton had the blankets been pulled back. We asked if we could pray for them and they took us into another house. There was a man in the back of this house who was extremely drunk and not happy that we were there. At this point I was getting really freaked out and all I could do was pray protection over us. LeAndre, our friend and translator for the day, told us that we needed to leave. So, Andrew prayed quickly and we left shortly thereafter. We all felt such a heaviness that couldn’t be ignored. We prayed together for the town and the drunkenness that has overtaken it, the hopelessness we felt, and especially for the children that are reaping the consequences, through no fault of their own. When we finished praying, we looked up and a colored man was standing with us. His name is Siev and he’s here looking for work. He came over to us because he said that he never sees people praying like we were, especially out in the open and a day other than Sunday. I know this is true because Africans never pray outside, they always go inside for privacy. Through this time of talking with Siev, we invited him to do house visits with us from now on and he is thrilled to learn with us and to grow in his understanding of God. We definitely left on a spiritual high. God brought him to us to minister to him as he helps us minister to the community.
Prayer works. It revolutionizes relationships and communities. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
