Tonight the enemy saw us coming. And he was mad. He was steaming because we as Team Zeo and as a larger body had realized that we have been seeking to change Palenque in our own strength. We had rallied and handed out fliers throughout the neighborhood about services and everyone had said, ¨Oh yes, we will come!¨ but they never showed up. And our hearts dropped.
Yesterday, I was called on to teach a Bible lesson and I prepared a message of the gospel based on Matthew 13:44-47, the hidden treasure in the field. I wanted to speak of how we search for that hidden treasure, God´s love and also that God seeks us as His treasure too. It is an amazing love story. But nobody showed up. Three ladies came to hear Noe play the guitar and then left. Ouch. But I taught my team and the other team and Noe´s family in obedience to what I felt God had laid on my heart. It was hard not to listen to the lies of the devil who whispered in my ear that I was a failure. But the teaching showed me otherwise and I clung to that. After the teaching, Noe played some more and spoke a little and some people came and listened. So he went and spoke to one young man, who was drunk and in a moment his life was changed. He was ushered into the kingdom of God drunk like no other, but God took him and embraced him all the same. Praise be to God.
Later that night, we were having dinner and Alissa really shared with us her heart that we were doing it in our own strength and that we needed to spend more time with the Planmaker than making plans. So we got a lot of crud out on the table and decided that today we needed to go to Noe´s to pray and cover the place in prayer. So as we were walking this afternoon and the enemy was furious. He had a man, that had come to some of the things, call out to one of the ladies. He was very much drunk and high on something and yet we slowed down to talk to him. After a little bit of talk we became uneasy at how he was talking with the ladies, so Chad and I asked him some questions as far as how to pray with him as the girls moved on. He grabbed my hand very hard while we were praying and stared at me with the most intense stare that I have ever seen. He was looking but it wasn´t him at the same time. So we prayed and spoke words of love and life over him then got some food and went to his house. We talked about a lot of things as best as we could in broken Spanish and found out that his brother Mario is a gang member and that lots of gangs were present in that neighborhood. After about 40 minutes with Juan Carlos we invited him to the church the next night then left, showering him with prayers and words of love.
Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose.
Praise God for His glories and His workings! Pray for Juan Carlos and for God´s leading for this ministry. We are also going to be doing dramas in a major plaza this next weekend so lift that up that it would glorify God and bring people to Him. Amen!
