Tuesday(17th) is when we started our ministry here. We were sent to one of the city squares and asked to hand out pamphlets to those gathered there. When we got there, we divided ourselves with our translators and just decided to walk up to people who seemed to need our help or prayers. I had paired up with another team member, whom like myself had never done this before.
We first approached an old homeless man who was cleaning a festered wound. We asked I we could pray for him and then proceeded to do so. As I began to pray I found myself beginning to cry because I had no Idea what I was doing. I began to pray for healing and kept thinking to myself “What the heck am I doing?! Praying for healing?! Am I seriously praying for this man to be healed?!” – I guess asking Him couldn’t hurt, so I kept praying, still sobbing at the ridiculousness of it all. This man talked to us for a while about his life and how he has been treated maliciously by people and by police. Weird thing is, while he was talking, I kept wanting to pull back a scabbing piece of dry skin around his wound imagining that if I did that, it would’ve been completely healed. Anyways, we came to find that the hospitals had refused him service because he was homeless and smelled bad and since he hadn’t yet had anything to eat we pitched in to buy him and other homeless people food and water. No, you guys, the government here does not take care of these people – they are legitimately homeless with no food to eat and no places to sleep and doctors who refused to treat them.
From there, went onward praying for the shops nearby and the others we had encountered – most of these were poor and believed that God was watching over them – even Jose Roberto, the wounded homeless guy – he believed even through his homelessness God was watching over him, protecting him and providing him with every last drop of water and morsel of food. His faith was inspiring. We kept walking down the square praying and hearing testimonies of people like David, a key-smith and troubled youth counselor at his church, and his newborn baby Samir Emmanuel. He said God saved him over and over again from addiction and so now he does the same for teens in his neighborhood. He was faith-filled man and was a true blessing for us. If any of you feel led to bless this young father or his church, his church address is:
Ministerio Cristiano
La Gloria Postrera
Calle Antigua a Nejapa, No. 67
Santa Rosa, Quezaltepeque
La Libertad, El Salvador
So as we keep going, the rest of our group comes and intercepts us, telling us about a man who was nearby and who urgently needed medical attention as he is so weak and in bad condition and has been impaled with a large nail in his elbow and can barely move. No one has paid attention to him because in El Salvador, no one pays attention to any homeless people even if there is a large nail sticking out of his body – he had been left there to die. So as the girls where waiting for the rest of the group and were deciding to figure out what to do, I walked up to this man sitting towards the middle of the square. As I got closer I was so broken for this man I just began to cry. He was so old, so tiny and could barely open his eyes. His elbows were twisted and malformed and his fingers were dry stiff and curled up. I was so wrecked for this man and I just stood there in front of him, staring at him crying because I didn’t know what to do. I kept looking back at my group and then at the man and back again just thinking “Dear God, what are we supposed to do?! We can’t ease this man’s pain in any way. We have raised all this money and are sent out here to comfort and care for the poor but now that I’m here, I feel useless – we have absolutely no power no medical skills, not much money, no authority to force medical personnel to treat this homeless man… we don’t even speak the language!”… and then in an act of desperation, I just raised my hands and prayed over the man – there was absolutely nothing I could do for him than that. As I prayed I could hear the others at the town square jeering and whispering around me but I didn’t care. I had come this far and all I can do for this man is pray and beg God tearfully for something… anything. And that’s what I did. Soon a team member came and laid a hand on my shoulder praying with me and I looked down to find the old man praying in his weakness with his head bowed. Soon after we were able to find a small truck driver, who agreed to take this man to the hospital and we all piled on the back of this truck and took this man to the hospital. Once there, we sent part of our team into the hospital with the homeless man, while the rest of us prayed for all those waiting and mourning for loved ones. There were many stories among them and so much sorrow and we prayed and worshipped with strangers because, really that’s all we could do.
On the walk back from the hospital, we encountered a family – a dad, mom, daughter and son. The daughter was so weak the dad had to hold her as she walked. Her abdomen was in so much pain because of unknown causes and due to infection after recent surgery and could barely stand up. We all stopped and laid our hands on her and prayed. Soon after, she vomited and we carried her to the main entrance of the hospital that was 2 blocks away. Once we got to the hospital, her crying mother stayed with us and prayed one last time before we left.
As we rode the bus home, and I played the events of the day over and over in my head, I couldn’t help but think of what could’ve happened if I had a little more faith in myself, and in the God who lives in me. I couldn’t help but think of what could’ve happened if I had actually believed that my prayers and the presence of the Healer in me was going to be enough. I couldn’t help but think what if I had, in faith and in radical obedience, given into the little desire to pull back that drying skin of the wounded man. Would I have been able to do God’s work if I had just shut off my logical/rational thinking and just given into and had more faith in His illogical desires in my heart? After all, isn’t this trip illogical? And so then, why do I try to bring logic into all this rather than deciding that faith is enough. He is enough. He is forever enough.
When I think about all the things that have happened here so far, even the ones I have yet to mention, I am just dumbfounded, in awe and just unable to express how I feel except for in tears at how indescribably amazing our God is. And nothing is impossible for Him and through Him. The words coming out of my mouth during my public prayers have not been my own – He speaks through me if I let Him and I need to let go of myself, surrender it all and just let Him work through me, “for I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Amen.
