Rama and Isabel

One of my favorite hymns is "God Leads Us Along," and it is a tremendous joy to rest in the perfect plan of God. Peace accompanies the plan of God as we rest in His will alone. It is thrilling to see how God orchestrates and brings people into our lives. One such family for whom we are so grateful to the Lord is the Mulopwe family. They have quite a story of God's protection, provision and sustaining grace as they made their way from the DRC to South Africa.

We met Rama at one of the malls in our area as he works as a parking guard. Of course, Skyler was very instrumental in the process as he befriended Rama and we began to see him on a regular basis always trying to park in his area. One of the days as I was returning to my car, I heard Rama singing and it sounded to me like a hymn. I asked him about it and he confirmed my suspicion. This led to a conversation in the parking lot where I learned that he was a believer and I invited him to our church. Unknown to me, my ministry partner, David Brown, had also met Rama and had invited him to come out as well. Part of the problem for Rama is that in order to make ends meet on his meager salary he has to work almost everyday, so it wasn't until Easter that he called me and asked if he could come to church. When he came we were then able to meet his lovely wife Isabel and their two daughters, Katia and Karen.

Over the next several months we were able to see them a few more times and around August we began to see them at church regularly, and we now have become good friends with them. They never complain but face many challenges. Coming from the DRC, French and Swahili are their first languages and so they are working at learning English. Susan teaches them English each week and they are so thrilled to do so. They are in South Africa on refugee status and so it makes it very difficult for them to find a well-paying job even though Rama has a degree in accounting and Isabel is a teacher. Please pray for us as we try to help them through this process and get more settled where they can become an integral part of our church family.

This entire situation is complicated further by the fact that Rama has just had surgery to remove a tumor which is almost certainly sarcoma--a soft tissue cancer that usually is found in the abdomen. This is his second surgery in 3 months (that's how fast it has grown) since in the first surgery they didn't test him for the cancer. Lord willing, they have removed all of the cancer and the tests will come back with the margins negative for cancer. This surgery means another 6 weeks out of work for Rama and no income. His youngest daughter Karen goes in next week for surgery on her sinuses, so it is one thing after another for this family.

I wanted to introduce you to our friends and ask you to fervently pray for their physical healing, for funds to meet their financial obligations, for better work and for continued spiritual growth. We gave Rama and Isabel a study Bible for Christmas and he has called me several times praising the Lord for what he is learning from his Bible.

I'm back from picking Rama up from the hospital and we wait two weeks to get the lab results back from his surgery, but it appears that they have removed all of the cancer. He is so thankful for the prayers to God on his behalf. As we were driving back he commented on how God brought him great peace knowing that he was not alone--many people were praying for him and he was so grateful. Please pray for their family during these times.