Providing physical & spiritual healing

Yvonne Woods (Career Specialist Field Worker) has been serving in South Africa as a nursing instructor for 10 years at the Africa School of Nursing under the African School of Missions. Yvonne trains future nurses and uses her nursing to serve the local community through a mobile clinic and a fixed primary health care clinic. Along with providing medical services for the poor and unemployed, Yvonne enjoys being able to minister God’s love to each patient. Here’s an update from a recent newsletter.

We now have a Doctor, Dr Piet van Rensburg, working with us on Monday mornings in the clinic. He fits in well with the team of nurses and really seems to enjoy being here. We are so appreciative of all he does. He is able to do procedures on patients that we would have had to previously refer to hospital. He helps us further develop our skills, he has also given us insight on what and how the local people think. I now check to see if they have been bewitched, many believe a family member or someone else has cursed them, or they believe abdominal pain is due to a snake in the stomach, leg ulcers or swelling is a result of being cursed. My consultations take on another dimension as I address the spiritual as well as the physical needs.

We continue to see the Lord move in the hearts of our patients. Each Wednesday, there are a handful of people who want us to pray with them to commit or recommit their lives to Jesus. There is such a spiritual hunger on the farm where we do the mobile clinic. These people are desperate for Bibles and are so happy when we are able to provide them with one.

Last week a young woman came to the fixed clinic to speak to one of our nurses. She told Zandile that she had been watching her for years now and wanted to know why things were different for Zandile. How come she coped so well with life and it never seems as if difficult circumstances got her down. It was so exciting for us to hear how Zandile shared that it was because she had committed her life to Jesus, and God gave her the strength and wisdom to cope with life. The young woman said her life was in a mess and she also needed to give her life to Jesus. Zandile and Val spent quite some time with the young lady counseling and praying for her.

Zandile first started helping in the clinic part-time in 2006, she was such a new Christian and so eager to learn more about God. Now her life is a shining example in her community, that people seek her out to ask why she is so different. This is a result of her hunger for God and the discipleship and support that Zandile has received from the registered nurses in the ASM clinic. Often we hear Zandile singing in Swazi to the Lord as she goes about her work, she is a joy to hear.

Zandile in the fixed clinic

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