The angels rejoice!

Yesterday was definitely an answer to prayer. Our day started at The Creche, which is the place that Rock Harbor donated where the Community Health Evangelists (CHEs) hang out, are taught, and watch over the kids from the Sweet Home community. We all played with the kids while Allison taught the women about child health and development. My favorite part was having about five toddlers sitting on my lap, taking turns giving me kisses on my cheeks as I sat down on a chair in the shade. These kids love nothing more than just being held and loved.What happened next was all God. We went on our first home visit, and Alan gave me the opportunity to lead the conversation in the home. I got a little background on the family we were visiting from Sisanda, the CHE director. She said we were visiting Aphiwe, one of the girls that attended our weekend OVC camp at Bridges, and her mom. Sisanda told me that Aphiwe had cancer. This was shocking, as she is probably about ten years old. When we got in the house, I asked Aphiwe’s mom what we could pray for. She told us to pray for Aphiwe’s health, and for the ability to get Aphiwe’s birth certificate (it’s a long story). She also said she was afraid that she might die and didn’t know what would happen to Aphiwe if that happened. I then asked her if she and Aphiwe had a relationship with Jesus and she said that she had in the past. I asked if she wanted to officially invite the Lord into her heart so she could have full confidence in her salvation, and she said yes, and so did Aphiwe (for the first time as far as we know). I went through the “repeat after me” prayer with her, asking Jesus into her life (keep in mind this is all being translated by Sisanda since they didn’t speak english), and after we were done, we all felt moved to sing a song of rejoicing and praise. One of the other local women led the worship song in their native language. It was so beautiful. We were all holding hands, about 12 of us crammed into a 10 foot by 6 foot room, and just singing praises. The Holy Spirit was so present it was overwhelming. It was surreal , simple, and very peaceful. If that weren’t enough, we had the opportunity to go and pray for a man who only has one leg and is taking care of his three or four siblings, and they all live together in a one room shack that is about 5 feet by 10 feet. He was already a believer, so we just prayed for God to provide a prosthetic leg for him and for provision for him and his family. It was so humbling. I really tried hard to imagine being him and waking up every day in his situation.All I can say is that I was humbled to be used by God to bring others to Him, I was humbled to feel His presence so clearly, and humbled to see the hardships that the people in Sweet Home are going through.

- Will Phelps