A Miraculous Day

“For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to SAVE the
world through him.” John 3:17

Ok, so today was one of the most amazing days of my life. I can’t believe how much God worked on my
heart today. Right now, my team is going
to the various ministry opportunities to check them out and see if there is one
we feel God is leading us to. Today, we
went to a place called Hope House. This
facility is a place where AIDS and terminally ill patients come to receive care
and medication until they pass, or by the grace of God recover and can go
home. However, the patients rarely have
enough money to stay there (even though it is only 10 rand a night… $1.00 U.S.), so Hope
House is not able to have a large staff. Sister Elsa is in charge of everything and there are two nurses and one
gardener. So to compensate for a lack of
staff, each patient is supposed to bring along some to take care of them, i.e.
change their clothes, bath them, cook for them, change their linens, and so
on. The patients each get there own
apartment with two beds and a kitchen. One bed is for the patient and the other bed is for the family member or
caretaker that comes with him or her. They have room for 25 patients and currently they have 18, most of whom
can speak pretty good English. Oddly
enough, there is one guy who can only speak German, so they have had a hard
time being able to have conversations with him and get to know him. But it is a really neat place where people
are finding hope…

My team went there this morning and we got a little background
information from Sister Elsa, then she turned us loose and we had two hours to
go around and meet some patients and talk with them. The first place we visited the lady was alone
and could not speak or understand any English. She only knew SiSwati, her native language, so it was very difficult to
have a conversation with her. But we
were able to play with her little baby boy and pray for her before we
left. The next person we came to was doing
some wash and she as the caretaker of two of the patients. Apparently some of our teammates were with
one of her patients, so she took us to the other one so we could talk to
her. The lady she brought us to was
Margret and she was a precious “go go” (grandmother.) She had been at Hope House for only a couple
weeks, but has been sick for a very long time. When she arrived at Hope House she could not even roll over in her bed. She has been bedridden for a long time unable
to move much. 

Margret is a beautiful 68 year-old with has one child and
several grandchildren and great grandchildren. She has the most precious smile and was delighted that we had come to
spend some time with her. After talking
with her for awhile, her caretaker came back in and asked us to pray for her
and her family, since she is from Zimbabwe
(which is being destroyed by a cholera epidemic) and she has been looking for a
job since she arrived in Swaziland. So we gathered around her and prayed for her,
then we gathered around Margret and prayed for her. Margret only wanted us to pray that some day
she would be able to get up and walk again. After we finished, Naomi, the caretaker, left again to finish up some
more chores. One of the girls with me
asked Margret if she wanted to go for a walk and she looked at us like we were
crazy and said she couldn’t. I felt the
urge to push her and remind her that if she has faith, Jesus has the power to
heal her and be her strength, but I was nervous that it was just me thinking
that and not the Holy Spirit. Well, the
third girl with me asked Margret if she wanted to try to stand up…then I knew
it was the Holy Spirit so I joined in on the encouragement and told her that
Jesus WOULD help her stand. Eventually
we convinced her to try and stand up…and guess what?? That’s right, God was so faithful and healed
her. She stood up right before our eyes
and took two wonderful steps. Then she
just stood and savored the moment, I think realizing that God is more powerful
than she ever gave Him credit for. PRAISE
GOD!!! I was in tears because I could
just feel the Holy Spirit there helping her stand and holding her up in her
weakness. It was the most wonderful
thing I have seen in my life. 

“That
if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be SAVED.” Romans 10:9

But the good news doesn’t stop there. Finally she said that her legs were tired, so
she sat down. Melissa asked her if she
died today if she was going to Heaven and she said yes because she knew who God
was. So I was nervous that maybe she
didn’t truly know Jesus Christ… Well the
Holy Spirit decided to do some more work and He forced me to ask her if she
knew why Jesus came. She said she didn’t
know, so I asked her if I could tell her and she said yes.  The Holy Spirit spoke through me and explained
to her that He came so that we could have a relationship with God and by
believing that Jesus came and died on the cross for us and then was raised
three days later than we are saved and guaranteed a place in Heaven. She agreed with everything I told her and I
asked her if she would like to pray those ideas to Jesus in her heart telling
Him that she believes and wants to live her life for Him. She did and is now walking with the
Lord. PRAISE GOD!!!! This woman got healing and eternal life all
in one day… I still can’t believe it. As soon as Naomi came back in, she was even
testifying for God’s glory, telling Naomi that she stood up because of
Christ. It was such a beautiful, perfect
moment. 

I am still in shock of everything that happened. Ministry hasn’t officially started, so I was
not ready for God to move so vividly yet. I know God stretched me today and I was out of my comfort zone more than
I was in it, but God was faithful and showed up in the moments that we asked
Him to. I learned to always be prepared
for Him to move in BIG ways. This moment
also showed me to NEVER question the authority God gave me to call on His name
and to NEVER doubt the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is always faithful and always there, we
just have to have enough faith to recognize it!

“For it
is by grace you have been SAVED through faith-and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God…” Ephesians 2:8