Hello friends!

So this past week has been pretty cool. I've been going to the Kalafong hospital everyday sitting with mothers and young children in Ward 6 and then hanging out with some of the coolest girls ever in cancer Ward 8. I don't really know how to explain my time in the hospital so I'll try. Ward 6 is for younger children that are pretty sick. Everyday we go and pray with Vanessa and her daughter Victoria, a little girl named Busi and her mother, Elizabeth and her son Samuel (who is really sick), Sophie and her daughter Suzzy, Joyce and her daughter Promise (Promise has cerebral palsy) and then other families that are in and out. The Lord has really been working in Ward 6 in conversation and healing. Please pray for healing over these kids and that their parents will see that God is the ultimate Physician.

Ward 8 is the children's cancer ward. Everyday I go I hang out with Faith, Samuelkisiwe, Tebogo, and Nonhlanhla and then a sixteen year old boy whose name I shamefully can't pronounce. Hanging out with these girls is the highlight of my day. Faith just found out about a week ago that she has cancer and was admitted into the hospital on Friday last week. Praise the Lord because she has accepted Christ and in hanging out we talk about the Bible. These girls are in the ward all day everyday and the nurses have a lot of patients on their hands so they are on their own for entertainment a lot of the time. I taught them how to play Go Fish and B.S. (yes I know the irony in teaching them B.S. but it's easy to teach across a language barrier). Yesterday we brought nailpolish and painted everyone's nails- even one of the nurses. Nonhlanhla only has one leg so for her to leave the ward someone needs to take her. I try to take her around the hospital everyday just so she can get outside and see the sun. I love seeing her smile, it's one of the most beautiful smiles ever!

   Something I have really been wrestling is God's power of healing. I know that He has imparted that gift to us but when you see baby Samuel struggling to breathe everyday the idea of healing is on your mind. I have been praying for the gift of faith. I don't want to pray over these kids out of hope- "Lord, I hope with all my heart that you will heal them." No. I know God has the power to make the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the dead live. He can heal Busi, Victoria, Suzzy, Promise, Samuel, Faith, Samuelkisiwe, Tebogo, Nonhlanhla and every other child. So why do I doubt? But then again I need to refocus my brain that it's not about me, God will work past my disbelief. When He raised Lazarus from the dead right before He opened the tomb Martha doubted Him and told Him not to open it because it would smell, but He still moved. So ya my faith would be increased through seeing one of these kids healed but then faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I don't want to be a doubting Thomas and only believe when I see. Oh man, sorry I'm going off on a little tangent. Please just join me in praying in FAITH that God can and will heal these kids. We live to bring glory to God and that is my prayer. My heart is truly breaking for these children and I don't understand God's healing and when or why He heals. But I know that Jesus told us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." In heaven there is no illness. In heaven we will all sit at His feet and praise Him. If Jesus told us to pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and He came and healed many- healing is 100% in His character. I don't understand this at all but I'm going to pray. Please join me in praying for these kids and their families and that God will continue to reveal to all of us His will.

So yes. That was the week. A praise for God is already working in the hospital- There is a little boy with two extra fingers on one hand and one extra finger on the other and then something is wrong with His development in his hands and feet. He has been in and out of the hospital and yesterday I went back and saw him and his mom and she told me that for the past couple weeks the doctors haven't really been paying attention to his procedure and changing the date a lot. But after her and I prayed the doctor's came to her that day and set the procedure definitely on Monday and they have been paying a lot more attention to them. Also I met a Christian family two days ago and they were able to go home yesterday. God is working and also praise Him for opening conversation with the mothers and the nurses. Another amaizng thing is Samuelkisiwe was able to go home for the holidays- she lives pretty far away. She comes back in January but praise him for opening that opportunity for her.

That's my week in a nutshell. It was an amazing week, I don't know but I really just felt a new closeness to Him. Thank you so much for your prayers, really God is moving not only here but back home and just over the world :). Thank you all for your support. It's hard to believe that I only have a month until I come home for Christmas and then only two months before Kenya. Happy Thanksgiving! Oh we leave this week for Jeffrey's Bay so please pray for safe travel. To have our clutch go out on the highway isn't an uncommon occurance so please pray that God will control our vehicles. Thank you all again and I miss you guys!

With love,

Chelsea

P.S. I added pictures and pics of the girls in the hospital so check them out! (Go to "See my beautiful pictures)

Praise the Lord my soul will praise Him!