this week was.

The labour room was especially slow this week. A word had been spoken about spying and taking the land and we felt to practically take that into our hands yesterday when there were no women labouring. We split into pairs and went pra*yer walking.

Anna and I wandered past the female surgical ward and noticed a ch*urch-like building. We asked a boy nearby what it was and he said “that is the mortuary ch*urch”. I had never heard of such a thing. Curious like a couple cats, we wandered down and found out it was from the Lyons Club of the USA. Hahaha. People apparently have funerals there after the bodies are embalmed. To the left and separated from the hospital was the morgue itself. We were fortunate enough to be invited in to see what was happening in the morgue. It looked a little different than “My Girl”.

Our pra*yer walking continued by meeting several hospital staff, being scared by a foot-long lizard running across our path, breaking strongholds we were sensing, trying not to interrupt people’s “private” showers and greeting the patients scattered across the property. I have learned that pra*yer walking is just as much about reaching out and loving as it is pra*ying. I think Anna and I would have missed a lot if we had kept our heads down and talked to G*od.

Towards the end of it all, a woman called out to us near the gynaecology ward. We responded and walked closer to understand her Pidgin. She was a warm woman and we did our best to communicate. My pidgin stops after “We for work here-o” but I can grab the context if someone continues to speak to me, the problem is I look like a deer in headlights when it is my turn to respond. She ended up taking me by the hand after a conversation about where we live and bringing me into the ward. Her sister was curled up and moaning under piles of covers. Anna and I offered to pr*ay after we guessed a diagnosis (which was wrong). I fully sensed the peace of G*od after we pr*ayed over Marcella. Her other sister picked up my hand after I finished praying and said something about her having a wound. I told her it was okay and that I didn’t need to see it. Before I was understood I was staring at some awful bedsores, quickly my eyes were directed to a three inch deep puddle of urine that was immersing her thigh. I had seen an order for a urinary catheter but she obvisouly didn’t have it in. We encouraged the sister to “Ask, seek and knock” to get the nurses attention. She responded, “and the door will be opened”.

After we cleaned Marcella up we regrouped and shared about this lovely family who doesn’t understand how to care for their sick sister and the medical staff isn’t helping matters. We took Paula, our leader back and prepared to insert the catheter ourselves. Before we made it to the bed, there was a Dr. whom we had connected with the day before over a patient who had miscarried. We had been able to share about compassion and felt like his heart began to soften. He was happy to see us there and invited us to come in whenever the ward was slow...open doors! He assisted Paula as she installed the catheter and invited us to see a Pulmonary Tap in the bed next to our new-found friend.

It was an incredible experience yesterday. I was so happy to see Marcella get the attention she needed and to teach the family about how to care for bedsores and how the Dr. is learning compassion extends beyond our “daily duties”…and all of it starting from a pr*ayer walk. Praise the L*ord.