As we were leaving the place where we went to
teach the Word last Sunday, we stopped by to visit our sister Anelia who we had
been told only just that morning was suffering an illness. We were totally unprepared
for the sight of the skeletal, pain-racked version of her usual vibrant happy
self who we found when we arrived at her house.
She has been suffering
and bedridden for nine months in spite of two different trips to local hospitals
which left them with no answers.
The tears and grief that
I was trying so hard to hide from Anelia, prevented me from even finishing my
prayer for her and as we left, Paul pressed everything he had in his wallet
into her husband’s hand. He’s never done that before, but before we even saw
her, that’s what the Lord had already told Paul to do.
The next day we
contacted a brother in the Lord who is a highly respected Doctor in town and
who had recently offered to help us with any patients we had. He told us on the
phone to bring her straight in to him even if it was after hours. So we immediately
got to work to bring her out and take her to the hospital to be under this dear
doctor’s care.
It turns out that
Anelia has schistosomiasis (a snail-borne parasite) which has caused cirrhosis
of her liver. She is hugely anemic and is currently receiving a blood
transfusion and also treatment for the schistosomiasis. We told her last night
that we are going to ask our brothers and sisters all over the world to pray
for her that she will recover. Will you please pray? Anelia really needs a
miracle to get through this.
