Saving Souls

Richard, we had 8,000 packed into that hall.  And by the third night we had as many outside.  But what I want to bring out in that is, every single night we had more than 1,000 people who were blind or crippled or, you know, sick, deaf, I mean you get lepers.  There are thousands of lepers.  You know, I’ve prayed for the sick wherever we’ve preached the gospel.  We’ve seen God do wonderful miracles.  I’ve never been confronted with the suffering that’s in that country. And then on the Thursday night of that crusade we saw God do the most tremendous thing.  He healed a woman who was 18 years totally paralyzed.  And when she got up and just began to run across the front of this hall shouting that Jesus had healed her, I mean faith came to the people that I’ve not witnessed before.  And cripples just got up and threw their crutches down and tried to walk without anybody praying for them. Hallelujah.

And we saw 12 people who were completely paralyzed healed that night.  Well, they had it in their national newspaper and it just went across the country.  It opened the way for another crusade for us.  And, you know, from that time 60,000 people have come into the Assemblies of God movement alone.  We’ve established 25 new churches in Bircao.  I mean, that place is so ripe for Jesus.  But you have to have a way to open the door.  Now we’ve continued doing that. We’re working with the health department.  We’re establishing orphanage for 300 children.  We have been helping in whatever way we can medically, and that’s why I wanted to come right now.  The situation in that country is, they have about 80,000 people to every qualified medical doctor.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS 80,000 people to one qualified doctor.

SPKM PETER PRETORIUS That is correct.  And then on top of that, those doctors are all in the cities where the one or two major hospitals are.  Outside of the city there are hardly any qualified doctors in the rest of the country.  Now what they do is, they bring people in, train them for four months as medical orderlies and then they send them to these little outposts.  And they have a book

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS So they’re medical orderlies, they’re not medical doctors.

SPKM PETER PRETORIUS Oh no, they only train four months.  You know, they’re given a little book that says, “If the man has this, give him this medicine.” But I mean they are really not trained at all.  And although they’re trying their best, they’re almost, you know, doing nothing to solve this real desperate need for medical work in the nation of Mozambique. So I’ve been praying about that for two years.  And, you know, when you came out to South Africa and came to Johannesburg, I just knew God was going to give us the opportunity to meet.  And I spoke to you briefly then and explained the situation to you.  But, you know, I want to as it were be bold enough this morning to issue a challenge to you.  You know, there is more of a need in that country right now for doctors to come in and to help a nation that is in such desperate need.

But I want to say more than that, it would help our ministry and it would open the way for your ministry to be able to get the gospel into areas of that country where it’s not possible in any other way.  You know, and it’s like a two-edged sword.  And I want to put that challenge very powerfully to you this morning, I believe that God wants your ministry to do something about the situation.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Well, I want to go to immediately prayer about it.  And then the second thing I want to do is, I want you to meet as soon as possible and while you’re here in Tulsa I want you to meet with Dr. Jim Winslow, who is our Dr. Luke, if you will, who is responsible for our world medical missions program. He’s responsible for the program that’s being prepared in Kenya, for the program being prepared in Jamaica and Guatemala and several other nations.  And I want you to speak with him while you’re in Tulsa and see how God leads toward Mozambique.  You understand our mission is to send our doctors to the nations of the earth.  So let’s begin work on it.

SPKM PETER PRETORIUS Praise God.