Most of what I have seen of the men in Xenacoj has not left a good impression: drunken men walking the streets at two in the afternoon tripping on nothing but their own loss of dignity, drunken men completely passed out on the sidewalk in a position that could very well break their neck, and the possibly sober men yelling at me and the women on my team using the few English words they know, filled with sexually vulgar remarks. The men of Xenacoj have been heavy on my heart for some time now and because of this, I have been in deep prayer for them.
Today, we were told we were going to visit widows, a typical ministry for us. We all hopped in the van, me with my ukulele and others with bags of beans, rice, and corn to gift the widows. But German stopped earlier than expected and told us that we were here to visit a man that was very sick. So we walked into the house and as we did I felt that this visit was different. The 15 of us could barely fit in Martin’s bedroom. At first I was standing out the doorway trying to peek in, but mostly just listening to German tell us a little about Martin. Before I knew it I heard German say, “We sing for him?” so I worked my way through the group of girls over to German who was motioning to a chair right next to Martin’s bed. Martin was old and appeared very fragile. He had a cap on his head and was bundled up in blankets as if it were very cold when in reality it couldn’t have been less than 65 degrees. But Martin had a sweet smile on his face that eased my anxious feelings.
I was anxious to play for him and I’m not sure why. Maybe because of how eager he seemed to hear the music, or maybe because he was so sick that I didn’t feel like music could provide him much comfort. But I sang anyway, and chose to sing the hymn How Great Thou Art. Martin did not speak English so he did not understand the words to the song, but as we sang I could feel something change in the room. It is possible the only thing that changed was my awareness of the Spirit present in the moment, but I have a feeling that it was more than that. Something changed in Martin. I saw so much light in his eyes and his smile, as if our visit with Martin had made him feel something new. Once the song had finished, he thanked me and smiled at me brightly.
German then suggested that we pray for him so I remained in my seat and my teammate and I laid hands on him for prayer. With my hand on Martin’s tenuous shoulder, my squad-mates and I all simultaneously prayed aloud for Martin. As I prayed, declaring joy and peace over him, I heard others speaking healing over him, asking for comfort for him and his family. To close out our prayer, one of my teammates, Lexi, asked that the Lord would have His hand upon Martin and heal him. I opened my eyes to see my hand upon Martin’s shoulder and felt so clearly that this was a divinely special moment in which I had the opportunity to be Jesus for Martin. At the end of the prayer I looked at Martin in the eyes and saw that my prayer had been answered. The look on his face was nothing but pure joy and peace that can only be explained by the love of a Heavenly Father.
As we stood to leave, Martin looked at me again with a great big smile, played air-ukulele for me and said a couple sentences of Spanish. All I could make out was “thank you,” and “beautiful music,” but that was enough for me. I replied to him with my minimal Spanish skills and said “You’re welcome! Nice to meet you, Martin. Goodbye!” I walked out with the great comfort of knowing that the Holy Spirit was with me and that He would be with my brother in Christ, Martin, too.
