**Follow up blog to “the man that broke my heart”**
Well, first, I’d like to apologize for the lateness of this blog. I mentioned in my first blog about how excited I was for my parents to meet Jose at PVT. So fast forward 12 days from the original day I met Jose –
I went to visit Jose once more before my parents arrived to check in on him, his family, and his pain. When I got there, he seemed exited to have visitors. I sat down next to him and asked how he was feeling. He still had pain, and the heat was still making him uncomfortable. I reassured him that I still wanted to help support him through buying him a fan and a new mattress. He told us that once before a team had come and promised the same things but never brought them. It broke my heart that someone could see this situation and make a promise like that and not fulfill it. I made it my biggest priority that week to find him a fan and a mattress.
PVT finally arrived, and my parents made it to Granada, Nicaragua. Our assigned day to do prayer walks was the 2nd full day of PVT. I Checked with our translator Hannah multiple times to make sure we could see Jose.
After lunch, it came time for us to head out for prayer walks. I hopped in the back of a pick-up truck with my fan and cash for a new mattress. Jose’s house was our first stop. My parents and I, along with my squad mate Jeorgi and her parents, made our way into the house. I sat next to Jose and introduced him to my parents. We got the fan working and immediately felt the air in the room getting cooler. We talked for a little while about life, hope, and faith, and we prayed with Jose a lot. When we left, he wasn’t feeling any pain.
Although I wish I had more time to visit with Jose, I believe our time with him made a difference. I feel that meeting Jose was the whole purpose of going to Nicaragua. Thank you, God, for leading me to Jose.
My dad sent me this email a few days after getting back:
“I was thinking of you today. I was thinking of our time with Jose. I was asking the Lord about why, not Jose? Why not heal him. I remembered that even if his prostate was healed, we wouldn’t have known it. Then I thought about how he said he was losing hope. Then I remembered the gift you gave him, how he was so surprised you actually ‘loved’ him. Him. Then I remembered how he said, “People had promised before to help him, but only you, only you had actually done it. Then this small voice in my head told me, “There are more ways to heal people than physically. There’s mentally, and then there is spiritually.
My heart believes that Jose’ was healed spiritually that day, Ashley. His prostrate may not have been healed, or maybe it was. But his faith was restored. I asked myself, ‘What’s more important?’ To heal the temporary or to heal the eternal heart and soul? The soul, of course. For our days are numbered here in this fleshly body, but the soul goes on. I’m pretty sure you’ll see Jose again someday, fully healed and smiling like the morning sun. We never know exactly what God will do with our prayers, but we know His will is perfect, and that He loves us all. That’s good enough for me.”
I don’t think there are truer words to say: God’s Will is perfect, and he loves us. All of us. Thank you all for praying for Jose!
Jose and my squadmate Jeorgi
