Hello from Panama!
So I wanted to share a story that occurred a couple of weeks ago in Costa Rica. It’s a bit long but hope it’s worth the read.
We were at a church all day doing medical mission kind of stuff with an organization called conexión. And towards the end of the day we were going to have a worship concert. During the last few minutes before we started cleaning up the medical stuff, this mom and her son walked in and I felt something off about the son. He seemed very uncomfortable and like he didn’t want to be there. Anyway, the mom went up for her checkup and I asked her to stay for our worship concert, which after her checkup, she said they’d stay for just the first song because her son didn’t want to stay. They went and sat and I just felt in my spirt that I had to go talk to him. In my head I had this whole conversation with God, “God what am I even going to talk to him about?” But I just heard Him say, “just go and talk and the conversation will just flow” And I never do this because I hate talking to new people but I said okay and got up. I knew that if I thought about it any longer, I wouldn’t get up.
So I went and sat next to him and said, “ hi my name is Stacy!” Just like any normal conversation starts, ha! But anyway, his name is Bryan, and I just start asking him questions about what he likes to do for fun or what’s a dream of his. He ends up telling me he’s a musician and wants to start his own rock band and he also wants to open his own graphic design company and all these other interesting things. His mom who was sitting next to him was asking me questions about what I was doing and I called over my friend Judy, who is part of the conexión ministries to give her more info. They ended up walking somewhere else to talk. While it was just me and Bryan, he wanted to practice his English. So I tell him a story in English to see if he could understand everything I shared and he did! So I told him it was his turn, he had to share a story with me in English. He sits there thinking for a while until he finally shares a story that happened in high school. Him and all the students were in class and and they all started hearing this weird music and everyone just stopped what they were doing. No one knew were this music was coming from but it went on for a few minutes. As the music ended, they heard a voice say, “satan is here”.
I proceeded to ask him if he was scared and he said, “no, I’m not scared of that kind of stuff.” I asked why and he said, “I believe in him. “ pretty much telling me he’s satanic. So I start asking him a few more probing questions to understand him more. I asked, “if you believe in the devil, then do you believe in Jesus?” And he said yes. And then I asked, “then do you believe the devil is stronger than Jesus?” He said “yes, I believe that he is the one true way and that everything else is a lie. The devil is the only one that can show you the truth.”
So I explained to him how I’m not trying to change his mind but I believe the opposite. Everything I have experienced in my life proves the Jesus is the only way. I continue explaining my whole conversation I had with God before I came and sat next to him. I told him I thought the reason God wanted me to talk to you [Bryan] is because He wants you to know he loves you. Bryan quickly shot me down with, “no He doesn’t, I’m not a Christian” I told him that didn’t matter to God. Just like his mom wouldn’t stop loving him and calling him her son just because he messed up. God still loves you calls you His son and He wants you to know that, even if you don’t accept Him.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes and I felt the urge to ask to pray for him. So I told Bryan that it was okay to say no, but I need to ask, “can I pray for you?” Bryan immediately said, “no, I can’t betray my father like that”
After hearing his response, I didn’t know what to say anymore. I sat there in silence next to him, interceding on his behalf but my heart hurt. I wanted to burst into tears as I prayed silently for him. Luckily, my friend Judy was watching me and called me over and asked me what was going on. I got up to go talk to her and Bryan got up to go somewhere so I was able to explain to Judy everything he told me. I burst into tears as I explain and she just hugged me. She told me she could tell there was something off about Bryan and said that although I was trying to help Bryan, she was trying to help me and protect me. She kept hugging me and praying over me. After, I went to the bathroom to calm my self down and as I came out, Judy, a pastor from the group, and my friend Macy wanted to pray over me. I explained everything to them and started crying again so they just prayed for me. As they prayed, I happened to open my eyes and look up at the exact moment Bryan was walking by to leave. All these thoughts started circling in my mind of how I thought him seeing me cry and them praying over me was going to push him farther away.
After they finished praying we went in for the worship concert and I cried the entire time. The pastor that prayer over me, came to talk to me during worship and I’m so grateful he did. He was able to calm all those thoughts and just asked me if I had done everything God asked of me. I said yes. He asked if I had done more or less than what God asked and I said, “no, I think I did everything He wanted me to do.” He said then “you’re good, no need to worry because you did exactly what God asked from you so now He is going to take care of the rest.”
After sharing the entire story and being able to process it a lot, not only did I get to practice hearing Gods voice but I learned how God feels for his lost children. The reason I cried so much was because my heart hurt for the fact Bryan would deny God the way he did and hearing him say he couldn’t “betray his father like that” hurt! Bryan’s eyes were so clouded he couldn’t see the truth and that hurt. I can only imagine how much more God hurts for all his children.
“And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.””
2 Corinthians 6:18 NIV
