ATL (Ask The Lord) is something very new to me and here in Guatemala we got assigned ATL three times a week. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday Team Hope heads over to a small village called Los Incinos. ATL could be walking around the village talking to people, introducing ourselves, praying for people, being invited into their homes, playing soccer with the kids or teaching english classes.
On Wednesday my team and I planned with some kids to have an english class at 10am at the “escuelita” in Los Incinos on Friday. We went to Los Incinos before the class started to spread the word through the village that we would be having class and invited all the kids to come. The more the merrier, as they say!
As we were walking through the village we saw a big pop up tent in the street and we had no idea why it was there. A couple of us assumed that they were just getting ready for the villages annual Christmas celebrations- piñata, fireworks, lights and so much more!
My oh my how we were mistaken.
We saw an open door under this tent with some kids inside and we wanted to share that we had an english class until a woman walked over to us and started crying. She told us that her dad had passed away and that they found him. She told us he was the guy with dropped pants. We had no idea what that meant but we knew he passed. That was all we needed to know that this was a memorial and it was a really tough one for everyone involved.
We then were invited in and chose to go in because as Christians and brothers and sisters in Christ it’s our responsibility to help carry one another’s burdens. We got to sit there and talk to some of the family members about what happened. We heard a few different stories but never knew which story was the right one. They eventually brought us some coffee and a roll with beans in it to snack on.
We looked at our watches and realized it was 10am. Thats when we told the kids we would be starting, but we wanted to stay a little longer to pray for the family and everyone there. At about 10:15am the team went to teach english class while May and I stayed to continue talking, hugging and praying for the family.
As we started talking to the daughter in more depth about what happened, she began weeping. She told us all the information— she found him dead in a field with all of his clothes off, even his watch. She said he never takes that off. She thinks that he was in debt with the wrong people and that they killed him. May continued hugged her and praying over her. As her sister was standing there alone, the Lord was telling me I needed to get up, hug her and pray for her. So I obeyed and did just that and she, too, began crying in my arms.
While we were praying, the woman May was praying over began praying out loud saying things like “God, don’t forget about us” “don’t leave us” “don’t do this to us” and by the end of the prayer she was thanking God for all the time she got to have with her dad and thanking Him that He has never left her side and never will. May and I felt all the peace that flooded this room.
May then asked more about her family and she said that she had a son named Minor who couldn’t be at the memorial because he broke his clavicle four days prior and was in too much pain to go. Without hesitation May asked if we could go pray and declare healing over him. Healing is something that I’ve always prayed for but I’ve never seen happen. I’ve always thought that diseases were too big for God but continued to pray for it. With a broken bone, I thought ‘okay…we can pray over him but I don’t think anything will happen..’
So we walked a couple blocks to a house where he was staying. His sister kept knocking on the door and calling him until finally he answered and came to the door.
When he came I could tell he was in unbearable pain. He was wearing a zip-up hoodie and couldn’t even take his hand out of his pocket. We started to pray. After praying the first time may asked about his pain on a scale 1-10. He answered with 6 so then we prayed a couple more times and the pain went to a 4. PRAISE GOD
We kept praying because we believe in a God of complete healing. May asked if he was wearing a brace and he said he was so she told him that she believed that brace was in the way of complete healing so she asked him to take it off if he wanted but he didn’t have to. He was torn because the doctor told him to take it off only when he was showering but he did it anyway. We prayed over it and could visibly see and feel the bone out of place. We prayed over it some more. May always prayed out loud and asked me if I ever prayed for healing in this way before and i said no so then she told me to declare healing over his shoulder. So I did. I started praying quieter and May would often agree with what I was saying in my prayer and began saying “In the name of Jesus” and “Yes, Jesus” out loud and then his mom began praying out loud and it kept getting louder and louder. Minor even started praying out loud.
ahhhh, at this point I had goosebumps especially since I had never done anything like this before!!
After we finished praying and getting ready to leave he was able to move his arm so well. When we first got there he couldn’t move it at all, then at one point he was able to move it with the help of his other hand but now he could move it 100% by itself! After we prayed a few more times he said the pain was still at a 4 but seeing the way he could move it was absolutely astonishing! Thanks God for taking the pain from a 6 to a 4!!
Healing didn’t come from May. Healing didn’t come from me. Healing came through the power of prayer from the Father. It’s not in the Fathers will that we have family members pass away, broken bones, or diseases, but it is in His will they they all be healed in the Name of Jesus!! A lesson is taught through these things and this is when we thank God for the lesson and declare healing over whatever we need.
