I sit here with a mixture of joy and sadness. How do you reconcile souls saved on one hand and bodies ravaged by disease on the other?
This week I (Elaine) spoke God’s Word to a group of 50 ladies in San Mateo. Grace Cooney organized an afternoon of games, singing and a message. Sixteen ladies responded in prayer and gave their lives to Christ!!! They will be followed up to be sure they understood the decision made and plan for discipleship. Shannon spent time with the youth and also reported a time of Holy Spirit moving in the lives of the Youth during prayer.
Please pray for Danny. He is a 32yr old who visited HIF after being turned away at the Rural Health Unit. This is our joy to extend the hand of blessing to those rejected and ravaged by disease. This takes money and the numbers increase as this health unit does not treat them and sees HIF as the one who should be treating the sick.
Danny was first diagnosed with Schistosomiasis when he was 14 years old. He was treated but never followed up on. This young man had an extremely distended stomach, was very weak and could barely breathe. We had prayed with him the previous week during a follow up and he had received Christ as his Savior! Although he would see his Savior if he died, the thought of yet another young person being ravaged by the plans of the enemy made me weep. While Danny was at HIF a group of 30 Gideons were also visiting at the same time. In that group was the doctor who had treated Mark Anthony while he was in hospital. The doctor examined him and confirmed time was running out for Danny.
Arrangements have been made for Danny & his mother to travel to Surigao City on Monday May 4. They will go to the hospital where we pray that the same miracle working power is in store for Danny as was for Mark Anthony. These and other cases are common and sadly instead of people seeking help from doctors they go directly to witch doctors. In Danny’s situation he was taken by his mother to a witch doctor and progressively got worse. We asked him to pray and renounce involvement with spirits that only seek to kill and destroy.
Although situations like this are costly to the ministry we will continue to trust in God who brings these people to our door step. They have nowhere else to turn.
Please join us in praying for all that is ahead. Let (one of HIF staff) will be caring for and helping oversee his medical treatment.
Last night was a great night for the Youth. They got to use the street hockey sticks that were brought to HIF last year. They soon caught on to the game and were having a great time. Better yet, after they were done a visiting youth joyfully accepted Jesus during a time of sharing after the Word was given.
