One
thing they tell you before departing for The World Race is to “leave your
expectations behind.” Luckily we were given lots of practice with this at
training camp, as this isn’t exactly the easiest task. That being said, I started
this journey trying not to have specific expectations on what I thought The
Race might look like. However, one thing I did hold on to was my expectation
for the Lord to move. This is a great hope to hold, as long as we realize that
the Lord is going to move in HIS purpose, NOT our expectations.
Here’s
a journal entry from July 19th, El Reten, Ecuador:
“The
first person we visited this morning was an older man named Marco. He was
bed-ridden & mute, but the faith and strength of his wife was amazing. My
heart broke for this man as I noticed the ants that covered his bed were eating
away at his raw and dirty wounds. Flies surrounded his face and all he could do
was lay there and stare. When we asked his wife how she was doing, she told us
that she was okay because she was walking with the strength of the Lord… After
we had laid hands on Marco and prayed over him, we told his wife, Deloris, that
we would return another day.”
My
team and I in fact returned to visit several times, and my desire to see Marco
healed grew every time we met. Even if his health wasn’t meant to be fully
restored, I believed the Lord could give him the opportunity to sit up in bed
and glorify his Father once again. I wanted this for him more than anything,
and I prayed for it constantly! We began bringing my guitar and simply sat next
to Marco’s bed to worship in Spanish & English while praying and sharing
scripture with him. We would spend hours with Marco and Deloris, and we never
grew tired of spending time with them.
There
is one day in particular that I will never forget: It was our last day in El
Reten, and we had three houses to visit. We decided to visit Marco first
because we knew that we would most likely end up leaving brokenhearted and
discouraged. However, the Lord had other plans, and we left more encouraged
than we ever could have imagined.
greeted us with her usual smile as she pulled out the plastic chairs for us to
sit on. However, today was different. We sat down and began worshiping and
crying out, “Oh how He loves us!” Marco appeared to be listening intently, and
the next thing we knew, he began to slowly sway his leg under the sheets to the
strums of my guitar. He reached out his hand and grabbed the edge of the bed and
seemed so eager to participate in this worship. This man who had appeared so
weak and lifeless for weeks was now filled with a hopeful and vigorous spirit! Hours
later, we gathered for one final prayer before saying goodbye. It was if we had
all realized at the same time that afternoon that maybe we weren’t meant to
pray for his healing, but rather for a peaceful passing. So, we did just that.
I squeezed his hand, kissed him on the forehead, and said goodbye to Marco that
afternoon, praying that he would soon be freed from the chains of his
distraught body.
Last
night I spoke with one of my friends from Ecuador and he told me that last
month Marco finally passed away. I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions,
but mainly thankfulness. The strength and faith within Deloris never ceased to
amaze me. Although she mourned the death of her husband, only a few days later
she celebrated his freedom and yet again responded by saying, “The Lord is my
strong tower.”
In
His time, His perfect will, and with His omniscient purpose, our compassionate
Father moved.
and are safe.
Proverbs 18:10
