Yesterday at the hospital was hard. As we went around praying for the patients my group came to a woman they had prayed for a few weeks before – and she was doing significantly better. The last time they had been there she couldn’t speak or even move. Now, she was able to speak a little and also move some. But as soon as we got there and started talking to her she just broke down crying. At first I wondered if she had thrown up on her blanket because it was a mess, but then I realized it was her food. She began to tell us her story.

This lady is from South Africa. She didn’t say how or why she came to Swaziland, but somehow she was involved in a car accident while she was here. No one had contacted her family, no one even knew she was in the hospital. And that means that she has no one to take care of her. No one to feed her. No one to bathe her. And that’s why there was food all over her blanket. It broke my heart that she had been lying in the hospital for weeks, alone, with no one to care for her. In the West we would assume that the nurses would do these duties, but it’s different in a Swazi government hospital. You need your family to come care for you – or you won’t be cared for.

We did end up getting her mother’s cell phone number and helping her to make contact with Sonia’s phone. The nurses said when she is discharged they will contact the police and help her back to South Africa. So, we’ll see what happens.

As we were leaving the hospital we were told about a little girl who wanted prayer. She came to us, standing in the hallway, and began to tell us her story. She was tiny, maybe the size of a ten year old, but she was 14. Her parents had both died and she only had a sister, who was around 16. She had walked to the hospital by herself and was staying there by herself. She has a heart condition. She had no other clothes than the small dress she was wearing, no soap, no toothbrush, no towel, no shoes. So we prayed for her – and then we had to walk away.

It’s so hard. Because you want to do something that very moment. You want to just bring her home and dress her and feed her and give her a family. But you can’t. We are going to be bringing her some clothes and toiletries on Thursday, but as far as finding her a home, we have to go through the police and the Swazi child and family services. It’s not the answer you want.

But I’ve realized something about these types of situations. WE want to be the Savior. WE want to save the day. That very moment – that very second. But Jesus is the only one who is Savior. And He will take care of her. She is in His hands and He DOES have a plan for her. So if our hearts are broken, we need to get on our knees and start praying – because He can do so much more for her than any of us can.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Katie Froese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.