Visiting Maltesers

Pastor Pooshani, two of our older orphan girls and I went to visit at a hospital in town ran by Maltesers. This was a special opportunity to minister to the patients that had long term, painful diseases like Leprosy, TB and Sleeping Sickness. At this hospital we know two of the current patients, one of them being Winny, the little girl that came to us so malnourished. She is looking fantastic! The other is a woman called Margaret who is part of our congregation and home cell groups as well has having come to our clinic for treatment. When she came to us at the clinic we told her she must go to Maltesers as we do not have the treatment for Leprosy, which is the disease she has. She has lost most of her fingers to the disease and has large wounds on her arms. Leprosy is an incredibly painful disease. I will include pictures of me with both Winny and Margaret. During our time there we went to each bed and talked to them and prayed with them, getting to know a little bit of their story. This was so difficult and many of the stories made my heart cry out in pain for them, but also in joy for the gift of free treatment for them. It was good that Eva and Nunas came with us to see what was going on outside of the compound. I think this time really opened their eyes to what is in the outside world. Pooshani and I made sure they were involved in the prayers and getting to know the people. Before we went in I told them not to be afraid, we would never put them in danger. These diseases are not very contagious, and they had nothing to fear from these people. It is important that we do not shrink from them and make them feel even worse. So with each person the girls became more and more comfortable and at the end sat down with a young girl speaking with her about her disease and even witnessing to the girl, who then decided to give her life to Christ. Throughout our time there two people gave their lives to Christ, and all were willing to pray with us. I do want to say, I am not very Evangelical, but this was a glorious thing to witness. I do believe in sharing the Good News Christ has given us, and it was a beautiful thing to see our two orphans wishing to share Christs love. God is so good!

I will tell you a few of the peoples names and stories, so that you might be praying for them just as I am. Joseph is a 15 year old boy who suffers from Leprosy. His leprosy is confined to one foot, making walking difficult, so he uses one crutch, but he is improving he says. Joseph has no family and had no visitors for Christmas. He also did not receive anything for Christmas. We did not have much but we gave cookies and buisquits that we did have. Charity is a beautiful young woman with a little boy about 2 years old. She has leprosy in her hands, making them very painful. Thankfully she has not lost any fingers, and pray that she does not through the course of her treatment. Another woman, whose name I cannot remember, was there with her 7 month old baby and both of them have TB. Due to them both having the illness she cannot breatsfeed her baby and now has to buy formula, which she cannot afford because she cannot work and her husband is not around. The young girl who gave her life to Christ has TB and her grandmother is there to take care of her. She has been at Maltesers for a very long time, as I have seen her there every time I visit Winny. She was looking well, but very thin. There were many more, all with different stories. But God Bless Maltesers for supplying this treatment for free because otherwise these people would never have gone for treatment because they couldnt afford it. I was so humbled by this visit, and honored to have this opportunity. Pooshani and I will be making a trip there every month to visit with the people there, to encourage them and bring them a little joy. Please be praying for all of these people, as their diseases are very painful. Prayer is so powerful, and our combined prayers can do miracles!