Everyday of ministry in San Felix, Panama has looked very different for my team and I, and today was no exception. Our ministry host Danny and Heather have both been sick this week, so we have found new and creative ways to do ministry around the area where we live. One of the girls I am living with named Rhema felt like we should go to the hospital and pray over people. We where all a little nervous, but where also excited to see what God had in store for us as we followed God’s leading. We took a taxi to the hospital and sat outside the hospital and prayed for what we should do next. Rhema, Eryn, Britt, and I where not getting any direction, so we decided to talk to a woman sitting next to us. She was very shy and didn’t seem interested in engaging in conversation with us. We where all a little discouraged, but we decided to all go inside the hospital to see if we could pray over patients.
We went inside the hospital and asked the nurse at the front desk if we could pray over people in the waiting room. She told us she was ok with it, but we needed to speak to the doctor. We waited for the doctor and Eryn began to speak to him in Spanish. We soon found out he spoke perfect English! His name was Al and he is one of the head doctors at the hospital and he began to give us a tour of the hospital. We found out Al was a Christ follower and said we where welcome to the hospital anytime to pray for patient during open visiting hours! Al had to leave for an appointment, but it was so awesome to create this new relationship with the people at the hospital and that they where so willing to work with us! God is so good!
Two days later Rhema, Eryn, Britt, and I all decided to go back to the hospital during open visiting hours to pray over people. This was a big leap of faith for all of us, just going up to people and starting a conversation and asking if there was anything we could pray for. We met one woman who had been waiting for her daughter to have a baby for many hours. We prayed that her daughter would have a healthy child and that the baby would grow up to know and love the Lord. About 30 minutes after praying for her she came up to us and said, “Thank you! My daughter just had a baby girl! I knew that it was God!” Prayer is powerful and we saw God answer our prayer right then and there!
Open visiting hours where drawing to a close and we where about to leave. As we where heading out the door another doctor who remembered our names stopped us and we thanked him for his time and willingness to help us. We then saw Doctor Al (the one who speaks English) and he welcomed us back to pray over more patients. It was after visiting hours, but he took us back to the Pediatric Unit to pray over the patients. Let me just say I was stunned that this happened. He was a busy doctor and he took time out of his busy day to help us! Why was I so taken back by this gesture? Something like this just doesn’t happen in the States. A ER doctor would not completely put his day on hold to help four girls pray over patients. God just kept showing up! When you follow the calling of the Holy Spirit, God is going to do far more than we can ever ask of imagine.
We all prayed over each pediatric patient and all the parents where very grateful. We would pray over them in English and then explained to them in Spanish what we had prayed for. Dr. Al then told us to come back to the ER to find him when we where done, so we could enter other areas of the hospital. Dr. Al was in the middle of doing a minor surgery and told us he would be out in just 5 minutes. Thirty minutes had past and still no Dr. Al. We began to question if we should just head back to the house because we did not want to be a bother to Dr. Al. About 5 minutes after we questioned if we should leave God provided another open door. A woman named Betty came up to us and asked us if we where tourist. We told her no we where waiting for Doctor Al. She went to go find the doctor and came back and told us he was very busy in the ER with patients, but she would take us to the different units. She took us into several different units which is a large room with about 10 beds. She introduced us and told us to pray over the patients. Most of these patients did not even speak Spanish and only spoke their Ngobe tribal language. I put my hands together in a prayer gesture and then pointed to the sky asking if I could pray for them. One man grinned from ear to ear as I prayed over him in English that God would heal his body. As I opened my eyes I could see a deep sense of gratitude in his eyes. I could not speak this mans language, but that didn’t even matter. God broke down those communication barriers and worked in both of our hearts.
We thanked Betty for taking the time to take us to the different units.We where about to head out the door, but Britt and Rhema thought we should go talk to the hospital janitor. We started up a conversation with the janitor and learned he wasn’t a Christ follower. He began to ask questions about how to become a Christ follower and Eryn answered his questions in Spanish as best as she could communicate. He was very interested in getting involved in a church and to learn more about Jesus. It was awesome that God allowed us to plant a seed in this mans life. The easy thing to do would have to been to walk out the door and ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit to talk to this man, but I am so glad we didn’t! God knows what he is doing and we just have to trust Him even when what He is asking to do seems crazy and uncomfortable. Step out of your comfort zone and just say yes to what God is calling you to do! He won’t fail you!
