Botswana Outreach 2017 was nearly over. After watching “The Shack” with the team Charles and I were getting ready to go to bed, at about midnight on the Saturday night. I had to go out to turn on a tap for Charles to shower and hit my head on a piece of metal on our caravan. This resulted in a bad cut and profuse bleeding. Charles managed to stop the bleeding and bandaged my head up tightly so that we could get into bed as soon as possible. He thought I needed stitches but that was not an option at the time.
As I settled in I realised that it probably would have been a good idea to take some pain meds but there was no way I was getting up again so I tried to fall asleep. I spent the night lying very still, spending every waking hour praying that God, Yahweh Rapha, our Healer, would do the healing that stitches would have done and that He would ease the pain and allow us a good night’s rest.
I have never had a head injury before and did not know how much it was supposed to hurt. We got up the next morning and got busy getting ready for the church service and helping the team, who was leaving later that same day, to pack up. My head did not hurt much at all and we just carried on with our busy day up to the time everyone have left and things quiet down. Charles and I were staying on for a few more days.
Late afternoon I opened the bandage to wash off the excess blood and for Charles to take another look. He still maintained that stitches were needed so at about half past five on a Sunday afternoon we went to the local Clinic in Khekhenye to try our luck. I did not think anyone would be around but to our surprise we found the nurse on duty available and ready to help us. At first she said that it was obviously too late for stitches, 18 hours after the accident happened. As she cleaned the wound, shaved around the cut and took a good look, she realised that it was a deep cut and suggested stitching it up. Meanwhile I continued praying for healing. Her colleague was called in to help and soon all was done. Injections and antibiotics were provided, all free of any charge. There were a few capsules short and they suggested that we fetch it from the Clinic in Tswaane, a neighbouring village. As we were planning to go there on the Wednesday, we agreed. Through this whole process I had very little pain & all went well. As they finished up Charles asked if we could pray with the nurses and they gladly agreed.
The next day we went back with Bibles and a little gift. We believe that this was a Devine appointment and were grateful to be able to share God with these ladies.
On the Wednesday we went to Tswaane to do some follow-up visits. We delivered some promised Bibles to two families visited by Simon, a member of the team, the week before. Afterwards we visited a family of believers, being able to bless them all with crosses & bracelets made by children back home, and a Bible too. Lastly we went to the local Clinic where we met “G”, the male nurse. We discovered another fellow believer on fire and spreading the Word with daily devotions at the Clinic, using an old King James Version of the Bible. We could pray with him and his colleagues and blessed them with a much easier Good News version of the Bible to replace his old, torn, very difficult King James Bible. Another Devine appointment resulting from my accident!
We finished our planned ministry in Khekhenye and then came home, blessed abundantly. The wound healed well and I believe that Yahweh Rapha blessed me with His healing touch as I hardly had any pain throughout this whole ordeal and, apart from losing a head of hair, was blessed by this experience.
Stephne Kendall