Thunder and Lightening in SA

Hello Prayer Partners

What a week we have had it has been one of learning and new experiences.

The rainy season has started, very early. But the weather hasn’t quite warmed up. The story begins with last week Thursday. It cold and windy. Standing looking out the window, its dull and grey. One would think that we aren’t in spring, but in a winters day. As the day progressed as did the rain and the heavy clouds and the wind was picking up. People here in Africa are not afraid of a speeding car nor the cold weather, but once it starts to rain, they will not leave the comforts of their home. In Uganda, it’s a belief that if you get wet by the rain, you will get malaria so many churches simply don’t have services during the rainy season. But we do thank God for few who brave the wet and rain to come to church!

So off we went to the prayer meeting, after dogeing the big muddy puddles we made it to church. Then Friday morning, again the rain was coming down but it did clear up enough to have an evening service. Saturday came, it was hard. The cold just sitting in the air, the wind was moving the trees in ways we had never seen before. Then in the early afternoon we decided to head for the church land and check on the tent and the guard shack. Everything seemed fine. We decided have to a service, usually Saturdays was the youth service. But as the sun set and the wind died down, the cold set in again. We waited, and started. Only about 6 turned up, but we just worshiped and praised God. It was so very special, God felt so near. As we were praying for the youth that came, the wind suddenly woke and became very strong. Felito and one of the guards had just finished packing the sound system into the car and the rain hit hard. The young guard ran to the cover of the shack and Felito to his car, it left me and four others in the tent. We decided to wait, thinking that the hard rain would pass then we would make it to the car. As the rain was pelting down, the already soft ground was turning into mini muddy lakes. I turned to one of the young girls and a huge gust of wind came, the tent waved and made a huge wip sound, my heart racing, I turned to face the two young girls and the next thing I knew that one side of the tent was flying in the air. The girls began to scream and I could feel the cold rain belting down on us. We (Cathi and Machep) ran to the car, and the two young girls to the guard shack. We made it to the car, Felitos mouth was wide open. The tent was down and it was ripped. I turned, and to my horror both Cathi and Machep had blood running down there face. We found some rags and applied pressure. Felito went to check on the girls in the guard shack, it was moving, but thank God only half of the roof came off. The guard walked the two young girls home and he himself went to his fathers house. We now had to tend the injured. We had to wait for the wind to die down. Even sitting in Felito’ pajero, it was moving side to side like a branch in the wind. We drove home very slowly that night due to flooding. We cleaned the girls up, they both had been hit on the head by the flying tent poles. The bleeding had stopped. We didn’t know where the public hospitals were, so we prayed and we tried phone Felitos brother, but he didn’t answer. So after looking at the book “where there is no doctor” which I lived by while living in Pemba, we decided that the girls would be ok until the next day. That night I didn’t sleep, I woke every two hours to check on them and their cuts. On early Sunday morning, Machep was fine, her fever gone and it only hurt to touch it. But Cathi was a different story. After going to visit the local pharmacist we found out where one of the public hospitals were and off we went. We phoned Felitos brother and he came and go the sound system and he would take the church service.

This is where the real adventure begins. We arrived at Germiston Public Hospital. It looked more like a run down old building whose owner had run out of love and pocket. We walked into the first door and found the minature casualty department (it makes Hutt Hospital look like a five star resort). After speaking to one of the sisters (nurse) we had to go and open a file for the girls. An hour later the girls had their folders and now the waiting came had began. Another hour went by, Cathi wasn’t doing well, we went to speak to one of the sisters and she told us to wait and wait we did. Then it was Cathis turn. She sat on this chair that looked out of place and should be in a musem. The sister was very understanding and listened as Cathi told her what happened, gave her a jab and told her to wait for the doctor. Machep was looked at again as the doctor was walking into the casualty door. The tiny truma room was full of people waiting to see the doctor. The doctor was tall and had a deep voice, but compassion was not his thing. He found out that there were three people who had cuts, without even looking at them he told the sister to prepare the stiches. My heart sank, this meant that the two girls had to have some of their head shaved….they both looked like the old monks with the bauld patch in the middle of their head with the rest of the hair surrounding the patch. The doctor stiched up a young man who had a cut on his hand. Machep was bout ready to faint but the doctor stiched Cathi first. This doctor does his job, but his tenderness, well, simply doesn’t exist. As I was turning Machep around to look out the window, the doctor had was stiching Cathi, her was shaking everytime he touched her head. He was more interested that Cathi was from USA and asked her many questions about that. Machep’s turn, the doctor must have been hungery or something, because he was rough. I was holding her hand and could feel her being jerked around. Twenty mintues later they were given the OK to go. We left as fast as we could and now understanding the meaning of medcial insurance here in SA.

We spent most of Sunday and all Monday morning at the hospital. This was an experience, but also a time of reflection thanking God that nothing more serious happened. But also our eyes were opened to the fact of how people are treated in public hospitals in Africa. We are now praying about being able to visit the public hospital to sit and pray with people. Please pray that God can open a door so that we can do this and bring Gods love and healing power to those who are in hospital for the physical sickness.

• Please pray for Cathi and Machep as they recover and heal.
• Please pray that Felito can find the correct glue and rope to fix the tent.