My perspective on the amount of time that I have left in Swaziland has drastically changed. My team has started to feel the same way. We have about a month left now, and our relationships are really starting to flourish. Walking around the hospital the other day I realized that it was familiar to me. It was even familiar enough to me to show someone else around. We are in a pattern of life that I have adjusted to. The roosters in the morning no longer startle me. The spiders even are not nearly as big of a deal as they were before . (I have come a long way.) I am familiar to the kids. They’ve seen me for the past 2 months. Generally speaking, I know what to expect when we begin the day. Granted it might be vague, but there is structure that I’ve grown used to. I know my team members. I’ve learned what it takes to irritate them, and to make them happy. God is making my friendships with them a little deeper every day. I’m feeling honestly alive in the ministries that God has placed me in. It’s refreshing.
Yesterday, on Friday, the kids were out of school because of Good Friday. So, we went to the hospital instead. We don’t normally ever go to the hospital on Fridays, but several people on the team felt like that’s what God wanted. I got the opportunity to meet a couple women that I hadn’t met before. The side rooms in the hospital is were they place the sickest patients. They can hardly move or feed themselves. Sometimes it takes so much strength for them to speak, but I know they enjoy the company. The first women on the left had enough strength to talk with me for a little while. She told me about her children. She was worried about what was going to happen to them when she died. She asked me for my help, but I have nothing to offer but prayer at this point. I know prayer changes things. You at home can pray for her and her children. Pray that God will be her support, and that God will be her children’s Father, Provider and Protector in the truest sense.
I moved and sat next to the other woman. She only had the strength to stare at me and breathe hard. I held her hand. I could feel her hand tighten around my fingers. It’s in situations like this when I have nothing to offer of myself. I have no wisdom. I don’t have words. But God is gently teaching me how to follow him
