The African sun is losing is exchanging it’s bite with the autumn air, which seems to go straight to the bones. The cold months are approaching around here, and the green is turning to brown, the winds are taking over, and the fires will begin to eat up the land. But inside the doors of the orphanage things are cozy, excepting the inescapable drafts that make their way through the walls. The children’s health, on the whole, has returned thanks to the hand of our Healer and the faithful prayers of His saints, both here and there. I know that the prayers we lifted up together for these little ones rose before the Throne in a sweet aroma, and God has heard our petitions.
Though the challenge of health seems to have passed for the moment, others have appeared. Lately I have felt like the large weeping willow that is outside my window: my trunk is firm planted in the strong ground of faith, but the rest of me is blown around in the winds of life. For one of these winds I request your urgent prayers:
* There is a 17 year old girl named Ntombifuti who God has allowed me to establish a relationship with, provide her with food and clothes, and taught her how to support herself. She became pregnant nine months ago, and was due somewhere around the end of February. She lives with her mother and seven siblings in a shack about fifteen minutes from where I am, and she and her mother have never had a conversation about her being pregnant. I talked to her mom about it, and she just doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know about it, she’s not bitter, it’s just no big thing in her life, so she’s not concerned about it. About six weeks ago, after much prayer, the Lord opened Ntombifuti up to me, and she asked for help. Last week she asked me if I would still come for the birth if it was in the night, and I can still hear the tremor in her voice that betrayed her hidden fear. Then on this past Friday her mother just said, “there must be something wrong, she must go see the witch doctor”. I tried to dissuade them from the idea, saying I would just take her to the hospital, but they are sure there is a “block” on the child that is keeping it from coming. With sorrow and a broken heart I left it, knowing the only way to change their minds would be on my knees. The baby has not come as of today. Please keep us in your prayers.
On a different note, I want to thank all of you who either sent things with my mother for the orphanage, or aided her in her journeys. Her visit was a blessing and a needed encouragement after nine months of not seeing a familiar face. She arrived safely and she just jumped in changing nappies and feeding bottles and holding and cuddling (the babies, not me….). Everyone here was blessed by her, and quite a few of the workers found her a good replacement for their mothers. Quite comically, a couple days after she was here I started getting these small bumps all over my arms and torso. They kept spreading over the next four days or so, and I wasn’t quite sure what it was, and then we realized that I had borrowed a mattress to lie on while she was in my bed and the mattress just happened to have fleas. So I was covered in flea bites, and we eventually just shared a twin bed – I’m sure it deepened our relationship… But overall the trip was amazing, and I know that it will continue to be a blessing as I visit my parents because they will have such a clearer picture of where and what I have been doing. Thank you so much for your support and prayers in helping her get here.
I will never be able to show all of you my gratefulness for your continued prayers, they continue to minister greatly to me. Please send me any specific prayer requests from all of you, and I will join you in them.
In the same fight & bound together in the Spirit, Nicole
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