Above are some pictures of my squad and I passing out flyers for free eyeglasses at the ministry we’re working at this month. Below is the story of how passing out flyers for free eyeglasses changed the lives of many.
“Be bold in your sharing,” said Ana our translator. Be bold in my sharing? We’re just handing out flyers for free eyeglasses. Boy how I was wrong. With God nothing is ever just. What he has in store for us is always greater than we can imagine; I learned that today.
Ana gave us a stack of flyers and told us to be on the look out for older people who would need eyeglasses. With in 5 minutes we came to the local store. Sitting there was a very old lady. I gave her a flyer and Ana translated to her what the flyer said. She ignored the flyer once she heard we from the church. She told us how her son beat her; how she was old and didn’t feel well. I wanted to help her, but how. “Pray” God whisper in my ear. So we prayed, my group and I. Sadly we had to go. We walked further, and Ana reminded us to be bold. Be bold, we’re we already bold, I mean we did just prayed for that woman on the street corner. To my small American mind that was bold, we don’t typical do that in the US.
We walked and handed out a few flyers. We walked past a well with a woman washing her clothes. We started to head in the other direction, when Ana said “lets go to talk to her,” turned around and went. We followed like little ducklings. We asked her if we could talk to her, we asked about her family. She told use she had two sons. Then one of the ladies on our team asked if she could tell her a story about the woman at the well (John 4). She sat there and listened to a story about Gods love. I sat silently and observed. All of sudden the teammate telling the story forgot how the ending went. “Jump in” God whispered. Boldly, I offered to jump in. I was blessed to share with woman how he loved us and how he loved this woman at the well. We asked to pray with her. She asked for us to pray for peace and quiet in her house and her heart. Ana told her about the free eyeglasses and that there would be people there to answer any question she had. As we walked away Ana said to me “that was good, but be bold.” Be bold? We’re already bold, I mean we did just share a story from the bible and prayed with her. To my small American brain this was really bold, we hardly ever share the bible in the US.
We turned down a road and handed out some flyers to men fixing a roof. Walking just a bit further down we stopped and talked to an elderly woman. Across from her has an old man sitting down. Jenny, a girl in our group went and handed him a flyer. Ana asked if he had time to talk. He said yes. So we all sat down and talked to him. She asked him about his beliefs and his relationship with God. He went and brought us his bible it was covered in dust. She told him of Jesus’s love and how he died for our sin. He told us he was saved he went to church every now and then. I interjected and encouraged him to peruse a relationship with God. Him and I talked about what this looked like, that it was more than just reading your bible, it was praying and talking with God, sitting and listening to what He has to say. He told Ana he wanted to accept Christ into his life. Jenny guided him in the sinner’s prayer. After he wanted to show us his picture. It was of Mary he said he worshiped her. Ana showed him where in his bible it talked about Idols and how we shouldn’t put any God before God. We encouraged him to pray about taking down the picture. He said he didn’t need to pray about it, if that’s what his bible said then he’ll do it. As we left the house I invited him to church. I for sure thought this was what “be bold,” meant. This is what Ana wanted. As we walked away Ana reminded us to be bold. WHAT??? Be bold? We’re already bold, I mean we did just help to bring a man to Christ, opened his eye to God’s love, and invited him to church. To my small American brain this was truly bold, we hardly ever do any of this.
We continued down this road and out flyers for the free eyeglasses. We came to a very old woman, 83 years old, and her friend. We stopped, asked her if she wanted a flyer. She couldn’t see to grab the paper. She was basically blind. Someone from the group asked if we could stop and talk to her. Ana asked the woman. She said yes. An asked us if any one had a bible story for her. “Mud” God told me. Mud? Then I remembered a story form the bible where Jesus healed a man by making mud with his spit and putting it on his eyes (John 9:1-12). So I told her all that I could remember from the story. When my own knowledge failed a teammate gave me their bible. After hearing this story the older woman asked us if we would try to heal her. Jenny stepped in and asked that before we pray for physical heal, can we heal your heart. We told her of God’s love how he fills us with his love and that His love heals all wounds. She began to cry, she asked us to pray for her to be healed. We gathered around and boldly asked the king of king, great I Am, our father to heal this woman. He is faithful. God healed her heart that day. She cried with such great joy. She even told us that she could now see shapes, she could see our outlines. She said Goodbye to us and we continued down the road. Ana smiled and encouraged us to be bold.
God always has more for us. Often we think He has limits. But there is always more. Be bold, every time I thought I was being as bold as I could I was putting limits on God and myself. I want to encourage you to be bold in you walk with God. You don’t have to fly half way around the world to grow in your relationship with God, or to find boldness. Is God asking you to be bold with your co-workers, with your spouse, with your friends, with your children, with your finances? I hope you’ll join me in prayers for boldness this month.
Please pray for me and others on my team who are still fundraising. My next deadline of $13,000 is due the 30th of September. Please consider giving.
