Highlights of Africa - Part XV

In awe of the work God has done through this chief doctor and those who work for him, we left the hospital and headed for the school which ATC funded. It is built on the property of an orphanage and there are hundreds of children whose only meal is a cup of porridge once a day.

After the children sang for us we were given the honor of handing their cup of porridge to them, an experience every American should have. Then the eight of us were asked to pair up and go in one of the four classrooms and just do as the Spirit leads us to do. I was paired up with the Dula and we chose to pray for each child individually while placing our hands on the head of each one as we went down the rows of benches. There were probably about 100-130 kids in our classroom.

The kids would stop eating their porridge when we prayed, and sat quietly the whole time. For me, this was an experience that was difficult, emotionally taxing, and stressful, and yet I wouldn’t have missed it for anything; I can’t imagine not having been a part of this. What I am about to tell you next had incredibly huge meaning for me.

I asked the Lord to show me what to pray for each child I was in charge of praying for – I was placed there for a reason and I wanted to be faithful to the cause. For each child, as I placed my hands on his or her head, words came, and I prayed what came. About half-way through the group, toward the end of one of the rows, I had my hands on a little boy when I was given the words to pray,

“Father, protect this child, where he eats and where he learns, where he lies down and where he wakes up, where he plays and where he works, Lord, protect him with your army of angels, let him be a child, let him laugh, and run, and grow big and strong, and jump real high.”

And when I heard those words spill out of my own mouth, “…grow big and strong and jump real high” it was as though God was saying to me, ‘in honor of your children, Linda, I am listening; your prayers are not wasted; I am here.’ Our children used to pray before their meals, “God, please bless this food so we can grow big and strong… and jump real high!”

I thought I sensed a holy presence, and I thought I sensed my own children there with me. Whether that is the case or not, the moments were holy ones indeed.

As I sit here at my laptop in the dining room and type this out for all my family and friends to read, I have had to take several deep breaths, wipe these tears from my face, and even get up from the computer and walk through the house, taking breaks in order to get through this. I probably won't want to talk about this personally, but I want to give you some idea of the depth of this for me. It has taken me hours to get to the point where I could type that out – it has taken three weeks to get to the point where I could entertain the idea of sitting at the computer to even attempt this. I wasn’t able to share this meaningful prayer with my teammates while we were in Africa. I am sharing with you something so sacred to my heart, something so important, so valuable: the words and prayers of my children. And their very words have now been used in prayer for other children. I hope you understand.