Here I sit 7 weeks into ministry at Kalafong Hospital. I’ve come across so many different people. As I put it in my January newsletter,
now I am spending time 3 days a week playing with children at Kalafong, our regional hospital.

I guess I really should explain better. The only wards I have been in are ward 6 (for the first 3+ weeks) and ward 3 (where I’ve been for the last 4). A lot of my time is playing with the children, watching them color, holding the ones who are upset, and especially the ones who don’t have family or their families cannot visit. I’ve got so many different stories that I could share, but I’m going to just write about part the day I had on Wednesday (the 27^th).

I went in early, to make sure I was at the hospital before 9 am to meet Elizabeth. Some background information:

I originally met Elizabeth on January 17^th, on my second day of ministry at Kalafong. She approached me asking for money for a taxi (the equivalent of just over $.50). We got to talking and I found out she has occupational therapy appointments once a month after suffering from a stroke in September. I asked to pray for her and after some more talk I did. Eventually we parted ways and I went to the children’s ward for two hours. During that time questions were popping into my head. We had a teaching session a few days earlier and the subject of ancestor worship came up. It’s a huge part of African culture and the best way to find out about it is to simply ask, because if a person involved in it were to lie and say no, that would be dishonoring to their ancestors. Anyways, back to this first meeting….I prayed/journaled and asked God that if these questions were relevant to bring Elizabeth back across my path. Well, 2 hours later, after visiting in the childrens ward, I was wandering around, not sure what I was supposed to be doing, and I ran into Elizabeth again. She was heading to the waiting room to wait for her prescriptions, so I joined her for the next 45 minutes. We talked again and I asked if her church practiced ancestor worship and she said they do. We kept talking about Jesus and how he was the only way, and she said many things that go right along with that, but obviously something is not quite clicking if it’s a practice she is still involved in.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day, Elizabeths next appointment. I showed up at the hospital before 9 am, and at 11 am she wasn’t there so I went into the children’s ward again. At 12:45 I thought I would swing by the OCC waiting room again and Elizabeth was there. We only had a chance to talk for about 20 minutes before she left. Since she showed up so late they rescheduled her appointment for the 27^th.

Fast forward, again, to the 27^th. I got to the hospital around 8:30 in the morning and Elizabeth showed up around 9:25. I presented her with a new Tsonga Bible and she gave me a hug. She had brought her Bible with her this time and told me it’s as old as I am (she got it during or before 1982). Elizabeth wasn’t feeling well the night before and was still having stomach and side pains so they recheduled her therapy appointment, again, for March 14^th. We sat around talking for about 30 minutes. Elizabeth
said she had prepared to meet with me and had read the Bible the day before. I shared with her a few things I have been l earning while studying the book of Hebrews this past week. Then Elizabeth mentioned how Jesus has said He is preparing a home for us, and also that she had been reading from Matthew 10. We talked about a few passages in that area, especially a few that talk about healing and faith, which I had been looking at the day before.

Around 10 we heading up to a different waiting room so she could see a doctor about the pain she’s been having. On the way up we were talking about the type of church she goes to and how they have a couple bigger conferences each year. I shared a bit about America and the different denominations we have and also about how some things are very different. I used the example of how in Mexico many people pray to the saints and in Africa there is ancestor worship. We also talked about how there is the common belief of one God, and again we went into how THE WAY to the Father is through Jesus (I’m really hoping/praying that we really get to dig into this the next time we meet). She mentioned Muslims and the
Koran and I brought up a bit about how they are misguided, but we have the one-God concept in common and how that is an area to build off of.

She checked-in for the appointment and then we sat down in the waiting room. After a little more talk I saw that a man next to me was reading from a 20+ page print-out that mentioned Satan several times and had different Bible verses listed. I asked him what he was reading and he shared that is was a testimony he received about a man who was a satanist and is now a born-again follower of Christ. We talked for about 30 minutes, and he shared about himself and his family (his name is Joseph, married, and has a 4 year old daughter). He is an assistant pastor at a church in Atteridgeville (the area around the hospital). Joseph became a Christian when a preacher was speaking at the hospital in the mid-90s. We talked some more about our own stories, and about missions and the FYM program, etc. I was able to pray for both him and Elizabeth before heading to the children’s ward at 11.

I have found it pretty cool, and somewhat humorous, that I stopped working at Escom because I wanted to have an opportunity to more-so
be with children then run a formal program, and that the only wards I have visited in the hospital are children’s wards, but I’ve been able to have some very good interactions with adults as well.