God Was at Work Today

This morning, I confirmed with Pastor Ron that it woudn't work out for us to head out to visit with him today. The Spring Arbor team was still down with some sickness today. Two of them were still sick this morning, and then a third started to feel bad this afternoon (there are four total in the team). But, even though we didn't get to go to Dundee, that didn't mean that we missed out on doing ministry altogether. I took the two healthy team members to a nearby AIDS hospice and we spent the entire morning praying with people in various stages of decline as a result of AIDS. We prayed for and anointed with oil the women in the not-so-sick wing and then moved on to the critical wing. We spent time in both of these rooms reading Scripture, singing songs, and praying over everybody in the room. We did the same in the men's wing, but there was only one room there.
Right before all of the patients went to get their lunch, the pastor we were with gave a short message to around 85-100 of the more able-bodied men who were milling about outside. He did this in Zulu, so when a number of people came forward to have us pray for them, I didn't really know why they were coming forward. We laid hands on them and prayed for these people one-by-one. I would estimate that somewhere between 15-20 people came forward. I asked about what had happened as we were walking away and I was told that all of those people had just made a decision to follow Christ! How awesome is that!! That was an incredible surprise because I thought that they were coming forward to receive prayer for a physical ailment. God was at work in a major way this morning as we prayed over the patients and it was exciting to see Him work. This experience was amazing and I would love to go back to the hospice sometime soon, but it was an incredibly emotionally experience. I found myself simply overwhelmed as we walked among all of these sick men and women. I was hit with a sense of helplessness because there is nothing that can be done to prevent death once HIV is contracted. It's a devestating disease, and I had a chance to see the end results up close and personal today. However, as draining and overwhelmingly devestating this experience was, it was a great reminder for me of what I'm doing here. God has called me to be here now to minister to anyone and everyone with the message that hope is available through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. What a high calling we have as Christians! I'm glad I had that reminder today.