“Amiga, amiga!” Imagine sitting in the back of a church service in a foreign country, not understanding most of what’s being communicated, and all of a sudden a little girl that you’ve never met is running towards you yelling in Spanish, “Friend, friend!” I was taken back for an instant because she acted like we’ve not only met before, but that we were best friends. Instantly there was a connection made, beyond any words or language barrier. Her mom sat in the row right in front of me, while my new friend & I hung out for the remainder of the service.
Towards the end of the service was a time of prayer where people could come to the front to be prayed over as a group. My new friend’s mom walked up and I felt an urge to pray for her, so I silently slipped behind her to pray. Not knowing any specifics as to her and her daughter’s situation, there were many things I prayed for her, but for some reason God laid on my heart the need to pray for a situation with a man in her life. Shortly after the service, I found out that my new friend’s name is Elisa and her mom’s name is Norma. I struggled in Spanish to ask about Elisa’s father. Through a friend’s help in translating we discovered that Norma and her husband had divorced about 8 years ago, her most recent boyfriend who Elisa considered her father recently left them about one month ago, and Elisa has been asking for him.
Since this night Norma, Elisa, and & I have been seeing each other almost daily at Salim, the church here in Palenque that two of our teams have been focusing on this past week. Through these beautiful lives God has reminded me that He sees and cares about the most intimate details of not only their situation, but their hearts. He does the very same for you and I….
Please pray for this truth to sink into Norma & Elisa’s lives and for them to be encouraged in their emotional pain. For Psalm 34:18 to become real to them, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit.” Also, for Norma to believe the truth of Isaiah 54:5, “For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.”
