A man walks with his daughter passed the threshold onto the pastor´s land and straight to the one he understood knew desperate times, and the hope in desperate times. His browned, weathered skin looked heavier and heavier the longer they spoke. A tear soon fell from a wrinkle, and another. Five minutes passed. He prayed with the pastor, ´Me arrepiento de mis pecados y quiero vivir nuevamente en Cristo donde hay libertad y vida´. – I repent of my sins and I want to live anew in Christ where there is freedom and life-
We came around this man and laid hands on him in prayer.
Could he begin a life with God after a five minute conversation?
Shortly after walking through the sloping streets of Palenque our team of six come upon a doorway half-hidden by the steep cemented street. Timid smiles greeted us. Upon hearing ´sientense´ -sit down-, we situated ourselves along with the pastor´s wife in a small room. Six other adults with their children gathered as well to hear about the Lord. How was He different than what they´ve known? And what can these missionaries from the U.S. do?
Turning to the Spanish speaker (myself), she asked, ´What do you have prepared for those who´ve come?´ Looking at each other, hanging onto the little musical inclination that we had, we began worship. Immediately after was prayer and then another question came: Is there a word from the Lord you´d like to share? Though we were unprepared, I knew God put John 3:1-21 on me to share. In Spanish they heard the verses and also the message God put in my mouth. Their eyes looked at me differently than they had before, as if something had opened them. We gathered around them in prayer and each of them prayed to receive JesusChrist the Living God into their lives to live anew.
So as the question prior asked. Can after only a few minutes, people come to begin following God?
The Gospel is simple enough for a child to understand and faith begins in the form of a ´mustard seed´. We make it much more complicated than it is. Jesus came. He lives, is at the door and knocks, and asks us to open. It takes hearing first the Word, and then the faith of a child.
