Dear Friends
Hope all is well and that you find yourself basking in the goodness of God. Just a quick note to share some things that have happened over the past few days.
We will start on a sad and share a story from the life of our gardener Movety Nyrienda. Movety is a wonderful man and the main reason that our yard looks like a small scale botanical garden. This past week on Monday Movety showed up to work only to inform us that he had just learned that his eldest brother had been found dead after being run over by a train. What originally appeared to be an incidence of homicide (the initial story was that Movety’s brother was attacked and then thrown onto the tracks) later became much darker as the discovery was made that Movety’s brother had actually taken his own life. As the story evolved it seems that Movety’s brother was devastated when his wife gave birth to a son who, because of circumstances, was definitely not his. This led to great shame and depression and this past weekend resulted in Movety’s brother leaving his family and disappearing for several days. After the fact, it was discovered that Movety’s brother had camped out near the train tracks for a couple of nights making a makeshift bed out of corn stalks and elephant grass. Near the crime scene a note scratched in chalk on a wall was discovery shedding insight on the struggle that Movety’s brother wrestled with over the course of a few days……the note read “never give up”. Tragedies like these are often too familiar to those we serve here in Zambia. Please pray for Movety as he has become the eldest brother in the family as a result of his brother’s death. In African culture this means Movety becomes the one responsible to handle and resolve any issue or crisis in the family!
On a much happier note we wanted to continue to share with you all God’s faithfulness as we minister to the sick in the local clinics. Over the past few months we have detailed the many manifestation of God’s power coming upon the lives of those so overcome by the darkness that grips this culture. There have been many healings and deliverances but none that have encouraged us a much as the testimony of a lady we meet a couple of months ago. While witnessing her daughter (who plopped down next to our team one Wednesday totally tormented by aches and pains) completely delivered from oppressive body pain and a severe headache, Luke was approached by a nurse at the clinic he was ministering at. She began to explain that she had full blown AIDS (which means that her CD4 count was below 200, 140 to be specific) but she believed that the name of Jesus was bigger than her disease. Luke prayed for her and she stated that she felt full of hope and joy for the first time in as long as she could remember. Well………this past Wednesday while at the same clinic, she came out and found Luke again to testify to what God had been doing in her life. She explained that before she had met Luke and the team the first time, a recent CD4 test had found her count to be right around 140 which meant she had full-blown AIDS. A couple days after Luke prayed for her she got re-tested……….her CD4 count was 900. If you go and search CD4 on the internet you will find many medical sites which detail that a normal person (without HIV) has a CD4 count of between 700 – 1000. You get the picture…………God has healed our dear friend from the devastation of a disease that has tormented her for many years now. To get the full impact of this testimony you have to realize that a few months ago God spoke to Luke and shared that His heart was to see HIV/AIDS destroyed in and around Lusaka as a testimony of His love……….a love that the Bible tells us “covers over a multitude of sin”. We are believing, and are asking you to stand in faith with us, that our dear friend’s story would become a common reality in the lives of those we minister to as a sign of God’s love and compassion for them.
Just wanted to share the excitement we are experiencing as we watch Him fulfill the promise for which He was sent…………… Luke 4:18-20 (KJV)
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20
We love you all and continue to thank God for your faithfulness in partnership…….none of this would be happening without your involvement.
The Physician’s Assistants
Elise & Luke Whitfield <><
visit our blog: www.whitfieldwateringhole.blogspot.com
Skype id: taziona6
