As we drove down the highway in El Salvador I was just admiring the beauty of the world around me. The fruit trees that scattered the landscape, the clouds hiding the top of the volcano and the breeze that was cooling my skin. It was just a normal day as we set out to evangelize in the communities surrounding Apastepeque. As we entered the village, I can just remember the road beating us back and forth and the truck banging around as we went from pot-hole to pot-hole with no ability to escape.
We were given a bag of food and told that we needed to evangelize in the community. We were to invite the people to the church service we would be having at 3:30 in the middle of the road outside someone's home. As we walked through the town we came to the first house and were greeted by a young girl and her mother. We had the opportunity to pray for them and share with them about Jesus and our church service. We handed them the bag of food and moved onto the next house. There we met Jesus and Omar. Jesus was an older man who was living alone and Omar was a professional soccer player. We gave them each a bag of food, prayed for them and invited them to our church service.
As we walked to the next house, it just seemed like a normal encounter. The group was just following suit of the last couple houses, and what happened next wasn't something any of us were expecting.
We entered the courtyard of the home and were following our ministry contact, Sarah, into the home. As we entered the home there was a body laying on the bed across the way. He was covered with a veil and there were three ladies in the home. One of the ladies, the mother, was weeping and the other two seemed to be there to comfort her in her loss. I can still remember the smell that was protruding from the home. It was a distinct smell and it was very uncomfortable. As the light was peering through the holes in the roof, we asked the mother if we could pray for her son.
As we brokenly communicated that we wanted to pray for her son to be raised from the dead a huge wave of emotion overwhelmed my body. I wasn't overtaken with fear or doubt but what seemed more to be a bone chilling experience. I approached the dead man, the smell described earlier just grew stronger and the flies were surrounding his body. I have only seen three dead bodies in my entire life and I have never prayed for anyone to be brought back from the dead.
We began to pray, not knowing if it was acceptable to touch the man, and just raised our voices in one accord. With our voices crying out the stories from the Bible came to mind, and I had full faith that Jesus can and will still raise people from the dead. During the time of prayer for the man, I placed my hand on his chest and trusted that if it was God's will that his heart would beat again and his veins would be filled with blood.
All throughout the prayer time I could not get the mother of the son off of my mind. God kept bringing her back to my mind, so I left the man in his place and walked over to the mother. Sarah was speaking with her in Spanish. The mother was very upset. She had only lost her son two hours before our arrival into her home and she had not eaten food in the previous two days. As Sarah was speaking with her I just prayed for peace in her life, I prayed for God's glory to be displayed and for an overwhelming sense of comfort to be brought upon her.
As I finished my prayer, I walked out of the house and began to speak with the others in the teams that were with us. Not aware of what was taking place inside of the house. I am only able to write this after hearing it from Kate Kovach. Kate told me that they were able to pray with the mother, and that the mother was just able to share her thoughts and emotions. The mother who was in complete disarray when we arrived but had received a peace about her. She shared her heart and she prayed that God would be glorified in her son's death. That God's glory would be displayed for all to see. In her brokenness, she gave God the glory. In her heartache, she received peace. In her loss, God was glorified.
As she finished her prayer, she began to sing a song of praise. A song that declared that the Lord be glorified in that place.
In a time full of despair, she gave God the glory.
Many questions have arisen because of today and I know there are many more to come. I thank God for putting us there; I know that it was His plan and not a coincidence. I know that my faith has grown from this experience and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for my squad in the coming months.
