Our CSM team has begun a new ministry. They are visiting people who are in government hospitals, offering to pray over them and sharing the word with anyone who will listen. This is a new challenge for some of our young workers who recently completed their schooling thanks to our mission sponsorship program and graduated from college last March. They are sharing their faith with sick and injured children, with the dying, and with the neglected. This can be difficult for many mature Christians. Our young people are stepping up and allowing God to lead them and I, for one, am very proud of them.
Joffrey is one of those recent graduates. He was at District Hospital last week. Visiting hospitals is new for him, but he has found this ministry to be rewarding. He says he was shy at first, surprised by the condition of some of the people – their thin bodies, their haggard faces, the hopelessness of their lives. But after, he felt blessed by his time praying over people. He saw in their eyes, in their faces, and heard in their responses how much they appreciated having God’s word shared with them. One woman told him, “Your prayer is the biggest help to me.”
At first, Joffrey thought he would minister in the children’s ward. That seemed like an easy place to start. But as he continued through the hospital, he felt led to go towards the isolation ward. A guard stopped and questioned him. “Do you have a patient here to visit?” Joffrey replied “No, but I have a person to meet today.” The guard let him through. He stepped into a room with 9 beds, 8 of which were occupied. He looked around and a woman sitting next to one of the beds looked back at him. Joffrey felt she was reaching out to him, seeking whatever help he could offer. He felt a nudge from God and went over to the bed.
The man lying there was suffering from Tuberculosis. He had been moved to this hospital from a smaller hospital in the town of Marbel, about 60 kilometers away. The woman sitting beside him, called a “watcher,” was his sister or wife. Joffrey felt no fear – just a leading that gave him the courage to touch this man and pray over him. He asked the man if he knew Jesus and the man nodded, affirming his beliefs. Joffrey began sharing Jeremiah 29:11, reassuring the man that even in these times of sickness, God has a plan for his life. He told the man to not be discouraged or lose hope. Joffrey shared that in all circumstances, God holds the future. The man smiled in response. Then Joffrey laid his hands on the man and began to pray, basing his prayers on the scripture he had shared. He asked God to touch the man and heal him completely.
After finishing his prayer, Joffrey gave some clothing items to the family. Tears of happiness were flowing from the man’s eyes. He managed to thank Joffrey for the prayers, and Joffrey left the room, humbled, blessed, and used as an instrument of our Lord. Joffrey left the room and the hospital, forever changed by the experience and ready to return on another day – to do more of this type of ministry – to continue to walk obediently wherever God leads him. And I am left to wonder – was this about the man who needed prayer or was it about the young man who stepped out and served without hesitation or fear in a place few others would venture? I know the answer. As always, God has brought people and circumstances together in the best possible plan to accomplish his ultimate purposes for them both. A man was in need. Joffrey said, “Yes.” God alone knows the future plans that He has for each of their lives.
by Becky Mingus
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