A few days ago, I found myself a bible-toting missionary partaking in door-to-door evangelism. I was handed a heavy box of New Testament bibles and dropped off in a Romanian village. A few months ago, I never would have envisioned myself involved in this specific type of ministry. I was anxious that I wouldn’t have the right words, or I would stumble over the words I did have, or that we would be rejected by the people in this village.
One of the first men that my group of four encountered during ministry was blind. We spoke with him for a few minutes, handed him the bible we had for him, and asked if we could pray over his eyes. My squad leader, Justin, was with our group and he said directly to me, “Okay, nurse you pray for healing for his eyesight.”
I never would have volunteered to be the one to pray for him, I would have let anyone other than myself take the reigns on this prayer. Someone who is a true prayer warrior. But, thankfully, through Justin, I was empowered to pray for this man. My team and I laid hands on him and prayed for healing with the full knowledge that God is the great physician and can and will heal his eyesight. I’m so glad that I was taught the lesson that my words can heal, they can encourage, and they have to ability to make a difference.
A few houses later, we stumbled upon a group of teenage boys hanging around outside their home. We stopped to talk to them, and were greeted with snickers hidden behind their hands and eye rolls. Only one of the boys spoke English well, and he began to ask us questions and ask more about the book we were giving to them. We stayed and spoke to him for a few minutes, and ended our time by praying for him. Right before we were about to leave to go to the next neighborhood, we asked him to help point us in the right direction. He surprised us, and told us he wanted to show us instead. He picked up our heavy box of bibles we had been toting around and began to lead us to the next home. He spent the rest of the afternoon standing right beside us, handing out bibles and graciously translating for us. As our translator, all day, he was repeating scripture to his neighbors, and telling them about who Jesus is, what he did for each of us, and what a life following him looks like.
I was completely awestruck that just spending a few minutes with this 18 year old boy, could spark enough curiosity and wonder in him to spend the rest of the day helping us tell his friends and neighbors about who our God is.
And when we said or goodbye at the end of the day, he left saying,
“God be with you.”
How amazing is that?
Our God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.
