Please pray for Shadrack…

One of our Wiphan students recently had a tumor on his neck removed. Please pray for him. How thankful we are to have Stacey in Zambia to help care for these children on Wiphan’s behalf! (Please pray that the Lord will raise up families or singles to go in the months ahead as we really need committed families or singles to serve as she is serving now. Stacey will return to the U.S. in June. Please pray that the Lord would raise up singles or families to go and serve at Wiphan in Zambia.)

Here is the update from Stacy this morning. I felt it was too important not to share and ask you to pray with us:

Prayer Request

Wiphan Family:

I come and ask that you all join us in prayer for Wiphan student Shadrack Mulenga, grade 10. His biopsy has come back and the tumor in his neck is in-fact cancerous. We will be taking him to Mary Begg this afternoon to get it checked and then to receive a referral form for him to be taken to Lusaka for treatment or surgery.

Please continue to pray for Margret Daka as she was released from the hospital last week after having surgery on her leg. She was reviewed yesterday and the doctor said that she is healing well. Margret’s stitches will be removed on Friday and we will continue to monitor her healing.

Finally, please continue to pray for Hendersons. They left Livingstone this morning to travel to Botswana. They will be returning to the US on Thursday. We pray for rest, a good debriefing, and safe travel as they go.

After reading this…starting my day with this…I took a deep breath.

A sweet boy in grade 10–in Zambia, Africa–just diagnosed with cancer.

Of course–he doesn’t understand what cancer is.

But we do.

Here–the Lord has given us so much knowledge. So much understand. So much blessing.

Here–we are surrounded also by so much hurt and evil…thinking about what happened yesterday in Boston. So many hurt for no reason. And in this I hold in one hand…sad and thinking…

In the other hand I hold this information about Shadrack. An orphan just diagnosed with cancer.

It all seems so overwhelming.

I hear my heart whisper, “When Jesus? When will you come back?”

But–He is not done being glorified.

He waits simply because there is more.

There is more restoring to happen.

There is more hope to be unveiled…resting quietly around the corner waiting to shine.

There is more light to shine through the darkness.

The enemy would want us to be overwhelmed…for us to hide…for us to huddle in and just try to protect ourselves.

But I believe the Lord would want us to rise up.

And run faster.

Run stronger.

Run more bravely–for His sake.

Because He has a plan. And He has a plan to use us…together…for His glory.

We can’t skip over the middle of that prayer request and forget. Looking and seeing what He has already done. I think of Margret. She TOO had large tumors. Her sponsor in America saw the pictures–and her sweet young teenage sponsor raised money to go toward her first surgery. It seemed impossible. The community had tagged her as cursed–but the Lord is wiping that away…and the community will see her as blessed. She will be able to walk and to run and to be a kid again.

And we pray this same thing for Shadrack.

Will you join us in praying?

If you know someone or have had a child fight cancer in the U.S.–you know the difficulty…the pain…the incredible fight it requires. You can guess that fighting cancer for a child in Africa…well, that might look a little different. Not only incredible…but maybe a little impossible.

We serve a God that makes the impossible possible.

And I really believe the Lord can heal Shadrack.

We do not know specifics yet of his treatment. He will be taken to the capital of Zambia for treatment. We do not know the time, the costs or must other than Stacey and our Zambian staff will just take one day at a time with him…and the other 450 most precious orphans there. If you would like to help or be a part of this specific need or just find out more about Wiphan or how you can be used to help please contact Nancy at http://www.wiphan.org/contact. You can learn more about Wiphan at www.wiphan.org.

As the days and months and years go by…I know the awful–sinful–hurtful–evil events of others seeking to hurt will continue. We are called to so much more. We are called to the mending…the fighting for justice…the making wrongs right. The enemy will try to use these things to not only hurt and bring fear–but to also distract us from serving those like Shadrack…making the impossible seem more impossible. Galations 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” This is not just life. This is a war…a battle–and we have to put on our gear…and fight. In the words of Winston Churchill: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Let us run with perseverance…let us not give up…let us keep our eyes on Jesus–trusting Him to shine out of the darkness and do something in our days that we can’t even imagine…even if we were told.

Please pray for Shadrack, Margret and for a couple returning to the US from Zambia. Please pray for Stacey and her last few months serving with us in Zambia. Please pray the Lord will raise up others to go–both short term and long term. Please pray He will raise up supporters to be a part of this ministry. Thank you for praying! And thank you for sharing these prayers with others!

In His Grace,

Andrea