Blessed Hospital Visitations
We (Leah and Joel; both co-labors in the Lord in Tamale) continued to join in the suffering of hospital patients through prayer every Thursday. The second Thursday in April, we encountered an oppressive spirit; definitely a dark power against which we were fighting. It was hard to pray, hard to concentrate, hard to see past all the sad situations and mournful faces.
We realized that intentional prayer was needed against evil principalities and powers. We stopped praying over people, then prayed specifically that unclean spirits be bound back from God’s work. We continued to pray over people, but the day seemed to be heavy and the hearts of many were low. God allows us all to experience seeming defeat at times. A day brings its own set of God-given problems, opportunities for us to trust Him for the outcome or for us to incorrectly try and fix them on our own. The day of hospital visitation ended soberly without fanfare or a mountain top experience.
The next Thursday, our prospects didn’t look so good again, as we set out to minister. Our primary translator was gone, and our backup translator was sick. Leaving the Center, Leah and I passed our friend “John,” whom we’ve invited in the past, and who has always indicated his reluctance to accompany us. John is also a Dagbani speaker, the language of most hospital patients.
Leah asked, “John, you are welcome to accompany us and translate for us,” she teased as we passed…and to my surprise, he said, “OK, I’ll come.” When it took him nearly 15 minutes to finish his work responsibilities and change his clothes, Leah began to wonder out loud whether inviting him to join us had been a mistake. I encouraged her that its God’s timing. In my heart, God said it is all His timing and for a purpose; so I began to pray for John specifically. We arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later than usual, but we could immediately sense a different spirit from the one we’d encountered the week before. There were smiles on faces, praying came easily.
Friends from the West had given us some stuffed animals to distribute to children, and we took them to give to the kids in the children’s ward. How the faces lit up with smiles as each one selected his or her toy!
“Larensha,” an accident victim, clutches the animals she chose for herself and for her twin at home.
We arrived at one station where an old gentleman lay weak and weary on his sickbed. It was Leah’s turn to pray aloud, and as she prayed for him. She later told me, she felt moved to ask God to please send this gentleman someone soon who could share the Gospel with him in his own language. “Amen,” she concluded, and rose from where she’d knelt by the bed.
In my spirit, while Leah prayed and my gaze was on the old man, God spoke to my spirit. After she prayed I said, “John, How about if Leah and I move on to other sick folks while you stay behind and tell this man the Gospel?” John has been my “right hand” man and close friend and I knew it was going to be outside of his comfort zone, but he manfully rose to the challenge and stayed to talk with the sick man while we went on.
“So how did it go?” we asked John as we left the ward. “It went well,” he rejoiced. “I told him that we were in the hospital not because of any benefit we hoped to get for ourselves, but because we served One Who said to visit the sick and love our neighbors as ourselves. Then I gave him the Gospel, and he said he wanted to believe in Jesus.” “So did you pray with him to accept Christ?” I asked John. “No, I forgot,” he said. “That was a mistake I made.” “It’s not too late!” we urged him. I said, “You can go back and pray with him now! We’ll pray for you as you do so.” He did, and we did, and he came back out glowing…because he’d just led his very first soul to Christ.
At this point in time, I knew I was leaving Tamale while John had no idea. God had spoke to me months earlier about John. He would be an evangelist and preacher to his people; an unreached people group according to the Joshua Project. I knew God was calling him because John consistent loving heart for his people, telling me the need of his people to hear the