Daily there comes to the home of William Branham countless numbers of prayer requests. Many of these are accompanied by airplane tickets requesting him to come to pray for the sick. It was one of these requests that caused Brother Branham to make it a definite matter of prayer pertaining to his trip to South Africa. He had considered South Africa before, but the Lord had always directed him to go elsewhere. This year he had thought of Australia and Japan, but the Lord definitely led him to Africa.

During the month of January, 1950, Brother Branham and Brother F.F. Bosworth were conducting meetings in Houston, Texas. On the same evening that the photograph was taken of Brother Branham, which registered the halo above his head, Brother Bosworth showed Brother Branham a lady's picture. It had accompanied a letter and airplane ticket from Florence Nightingale of Durban, South Africa, a distant relative of the Florence Nightingale who founded the Red Cross. She was a mere skeleton and reminded them of Georgia Carter, a young lady from Milltown, Indiana, who was in a similar condition before she received her healing. For nearly nine years she had been on her back with tuberculosis and weighed hardly forty pounds at the time Brother Branham prayed for her. This Florence nightingale of Durban suffered from cancer at the entrance of the stomach which causes one to die of starvation. She weighed only about fifty pounds. She had been fed through the veins on glucose until that was no longer possible. Hearing of Brother Branham, she cried for him to come and pray for her. Thus she wrote for him to come, sending along her picture and plane ticket.

That night in Houston they prayed for Florence Nightingale, promising God that if He would heal her and make her completely well, they would take it as an indication from God that they should go to South Africa.

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Eight weeks later the Branham party landed in England on their way to Finland. The King of England had sent a cable requesting Brother Branham to come and pray for him. When the Branham party stepped off the plane, William Branham's name was called over the loud speaker. Florence Nightingale had arrived at the airport just fifteen minutes before and those with her had put out this call for Brother Branham to come quickly because they thought she was dying. The place was so crowded that they were informed to get in touch with him at the Picadilly Hotel. This was done and arrangements were made for him to come to her hotel. It was one of those foggy days in April when they motored to the hotel where she was staying. No one in the party had ever seen a human being in such a pitiful condition as the woman in that room. She was so thin that the skin stuck to her bones. Their hearts were moved with compassion. Florence Nightingale could hardly speak as tears ran down her cheeks for she was suffering with such pain.

They all, including a minister of the Church of England as well as her nurses, knelt and began to pray for her. As they started to pray a dove came and sat on the window sill, looking inside as it started to coo. After prayer, when Brother Branham said, "Amen," the dove flew away. The minister started to speak saying, "Did you see that dove?" Before he finished the question the Spirit of the Lord moved upon Brother Branham to speak these words--"Thus saith the Lord, you will live, sister."

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Eight months after Brother Branham had prayed for Florence Nightingale in England he received another picture from her. At this time she was a perfect picture of health and weighed 155 pounds.