February - Team of 37 Women

God is still in the miracle working business! Many things happened this past week when the team was here. First, they were so kind and generous to all of us, the children, teachers, cooks, missionaries, and staff. They touched each of our lives in a very special way! Twenty-two of our cooks gave their lives to the Lord at a brunch that the ladies had for them. Several of the team members shared their testimonies of hurt and despair and how God saved and delivered them!

We had several clinics while the team was here that they were able to participate in. Dr. Doris was a great blessing, as well as several other nurses that assisted in these clinics. On Thursday, one of the cooks brought in a limp unconscious child to the clinic. Thank God, Dr. Doris was there! She began to assess the child, and said that we needed to get her to the hospital ASAP. She thought that she had pneumonia, and, or, meningitis. She was burning with fever and having great difficulty breathing. The cook said that the child had had a fit (seizure) and that she was just watching the child for a friend who was at work in town. We couldn’t get in touch with the mother, and when we called the father, he said he was busy working. As we were trying to decide what to do, how to get her to the hospital, etc, I said to Dr, Doris, let’s pray. Doc pulled out her anointing oil and began to pray for this child, and I know that God heard our prayers! Within minutes the child was crying and coughing, and had come back to consciousness. Praise the Lord!

We finally decided to go ahead and take her to the hospital without her parents. It took an hour for the pediatrician to get to the ER. The father came to the ER to check on her. He was very upset that it was taking the doctor so long. He told my assistant that he thought he needed to get her out of the hospital and take her to a witch doctor. He explained to the father that the Lord had already touched the child and that the child would receive the medical care that she needed here. The whole time that we were waiting for the doctor, the little girl continued to have seizures.

A couple of days later, I heard that she was doing better and that they thought that she had swallowed some poison that had caused the symptoms. I’m not sure about that, but I know that God touched that little girl and that He heard our prayers and saved her little life!

Another miracle on Friday when the team prayed for a baby in Maphiveni that was 8 months old and could not hold her head up. A little while later, the mom brought her back in and she was looking around and holding her head up!! Praise the Lord, Jehovah Rapha, our healer!

Thank you team for working hard to make our class rooms/care points beautiful, and for being so compassionate and loving to the kids, and for allowing God to move and work in and through you!

After all of the good things that God has done, Satan comes in fighting with a vengeance. This past weekend, right next door to our house, there was a witch doctor graduation ceremony. My daughter, Gabby came in Sunday morning between 6 and 7 and asked us if we heard the drums and screaming during the night. Daran and I didn’t hear them, but I had a very restless night with terrible dreams that I was fighting against something all night.

As we woke up, we began to hear the drums also. Gabby said that they it all started about midnight with loud moaning and screaming noises that sounded like a female voice. Then the drums started. She said she was awake most of the night praying. Later, Daran was outside and the dogs were going nuts about something by the fence. Daran walked over and saw that they were slaughtering goats right next to the fence. There was a guy that looked out of his mind swinging a knife trying to cut our dogs. Daran asked if they could move the goats away from the fence and he locked the dogs on the other side of the yard so they wouldn’t get hurt. Roger, a Swazi that works with us at Children’s Cup, and rents a room on the side of our house, told Daran what was going on, that it was a graduation ceremony for a witch doctor. Roger had also been awake most of the night praying.

Daran immediately began to plead the blood of Jesus over all of us and our home. We had a family devotion time where we talked to the children about making a choice on their own for Christ, and that it might not always be easy to walk with Christ. We talked about how Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison in Acts for casting the spirit out of the fortune teller. We don’t want to hear about the persecution and suffering, just the victories, but we sometimes must deal with both in life. What a realization that evil is all around us and that we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. It was a very sobering time, but also a time where we came together as a family unit in prayer. What Satan tries to use for bad, God always brings good out of it!

That evening, we invited our missionary friends to come and pray over our house and family. It was such a blessing to have so many friends come together and agree with us in prayer. It turned out to be a time where God spoke to us individually and as a family. God used this to draw us to Him, to teach us to trust Him and not fear. I am so grateful to have Godly friends that love us and that will stand with us through the difficult times, as well as the good times.

I truly believe that God is going to do great things in our lives and in Swaziland in 2008, and I feel so privileged to be even a small part of it! Please continue to keep us in your prayers every day. The battle is the Lords! Amen!