Big Faith
I have many stories that I cannot wait to share about the race for when I get home, but this one is one of my favorites
The second and third weeks of being in the Dominican Republic have been the hardest of the entire race. Series of hard news, setbacks, and an oppressive atmosphere of spiritual warfare made those two weeks seemingly unbearable. In this time, the Lord was teaching me what big faith looked like. He was asking me to let go of everything I could do with my might and have enough faith to believe with his strength, joy, love, power, etc. I could defeat the heaviness we were encountering. I asked the Lord to show me what big faith looked like and dang, God showed up.
During our SMT time – meeting people in the community to start to build relationships for the local church and MOH. We were walking down the street when an older woman waved us over and started talking to us. She then invited us back to her home. As we weaved in and out through makeshift homes, waving at people as we walked by, and climbed up a ladder into her home, we were welcomed by a gracious sense of hospitality. We started to talk to this woman (the grandma), a mother, and her son about their lives. Sooner or later in the conversation, we asked the. mother about what her dreams were and what she believed, and from there she told us three stories that blew my mind.
- The woman started by telling us that when her son was born, he was very sick and the doctors told her that he would not live very long. She would continue bringing her son to the hospital, unable to find the care to fix the problem. One day, as her son was dying in her arms, she rushed him to the hospital, gave him to emergency personnel, and fell to the ground, and prayed that she would never have to bring her son back to the hospital again. When the doctors came out, they told her the usual, that her son was going to pass, but that was not God’s diagnosis. Ever since that day she has never had to take her son to the hospital.
- The next story the woman told us was about her house. Before they lived in their current home, the woman lived in a house next to a river. One day the river flooded and her house and all of her possessions her lost. Homeless with nowhere to go, she prayed that God would provide a house. A few hours later, her ex-husband told her that he had an extra house she could buy in due time while she was recovering from the flood.
- The last story happened recently. Before Covid, the woman was a housemaid, but because of the economic fallout in the Dominican Republic, she was let go and without work. Unable to provide for her family, she prayed to God for work, and that night, Jesus came to her in a dream and told her to go to the hospital the next day. Without any governmental certifications, she asked for a job at the hospital, and 10 days later she was given the job and able to support her family.
I can’t explain the extreme extent that the Lord used these stories to flood me with his goodness. In complete honesty, I teared up sitting on her couch because of how filled with the Holy Spirit I was. Encountering the physical manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit inside of you is something that you won’t ever forget. The power of testimony is strong. Just listening to the woman talk gave me goosebumps. My reaction to my team seemed overtop but we all know that when the Lord meets you in the most unexpected place, all you can do is experience the limitless freedom He offers
Thanks for reading,
Brent
