Half of our ministry the month we were in Nicaragua was prayer walking! Every afternoon 3 of our teams would pile into the bed of a pickup truck and we would head out on the tiny little cobblestone streets of Granada and as teams we would make visits to all the tin houses, venture down tiny dirt paths and pray for anyone we came in contact with. A lot of this looked like families inviting us into their homes and sitting and listening to so many stories of Faith and God’s goodness prevailing through hardship. In our last week of ministry our host decided that he wanted us to go into Central Park and the surrounding streets in the center of Granada and prayer walk there. The center of town is so much different than the little tiny houses we had been visiting all month, it was a lot of street vendors, beggars, and a whole lot of tourists and backpackers. I knew talking in the streets was going to be a lot different than coming into someone’s home and despite the challenges this change posed I immediately was ecstatic at the idea, and somehow already knew that God had been planning this day all along.
The whole day before the prayer walk we had a full squad 24 hour prayer and fasting. So people would sign up for hours at a time of prayer shifts and be praying for the people we would encounter and asking for words for them and even asking for insight from God to prepare our hearts for how He was about to move. In the morning. Half the squad went out into the town in groups of 4 with a translator and the other half of the squad stayed back and interceded for those who were out, I’ve never felt so drenched in prayer before. Starting out was a little stressful, so many people piled into the truck, confusion with translators, and even conflicting feelings on which direction to head in but of course my God is so much bigger than all of it. After a little over an hour we had prayed for a couple of single moms we had encountered and a homeless man. All emotional and Holy Spirit filled encounters but nothing could have prepared us for what God had intended to do with our last half hour of prayer walking.
God had showed Moriah an image of an old woman with gray hair and as we were walking back to Central Park she saw her on the other side of the street sitting on a door step and immediately Moriah asked us all to go over with her. The woman was so sweet and one and began telling us about her migraines and vision problems as we all sat down on the sidewalk to talk. She told us that even with us so close, she couldn’t make out our faces, she could see color but that was pretty much it. After some really cool conversation with her about dreams she had been having about feelings of freedom and of a man calling her to get baptized, we decided to pray freedom over her, knowing that God wanted to free her physical body of the pain she was experiencing and free her eyes from blindness. Moriah placed her hand over the woman’s eyes and we all prayed for restoration of her sight. The woman opened her eyes and through tears told Moriah that as soon as she placed her hand over her eyes she could feel heat coming off her hand and that she could now see Moriah’s face. Praise praise praise the God who opens the eyes of the blind.
As we turned around and began to walk down the sidewalk a little, still giddy with the joy of witnessing healing, there were 4 men sitting in the bed of a truck gambling. We walked up and asked if we could pray for them for anything and one man stopped and looked up at us and said “why would you want to pray for us, do you see what we’re doing?” Woah. God had just opened a huge doorway into us explaining who Jesus is and the kind of people He hung out with in His ministry on earth. It was a super long good conversation of just getting to explain Jesus’ love while we stood crowded around the bed of a truck. After sharing what Jesus did on the cross for them, I told them that all they had to do was accept His sacrifice for them and allow Him to take over their lives. We asked if they wanted to accept Him now and 3 of the men said yes! As they repeated the prayer of salvation, I sobbed and thanked God at getting to witness the homecoming of 3 of His sons.
After talking some more and rejoicing with them, our translator gave them His Spanish Bible and as we turned around ready to head back to the Central Park(we were already 20 minutes late), there was a woman standing behind us who had seen us praying over the men and came over to ask for prayer for healing for her knee(she was walking with a cane). This took me by surprise. After a month of prayer walking I had never had anyone come up to us asking for prayer and the Lord immediately told me “Alyssa, she can see me in your midst.” We all placed our hands on the woman’s knee and prayed in full faith that our healing God would move once again. And as we stood up I saw that the woman had tears streaming steadily down her face and without the cane was now putting weight on her bad leg. She told us through her huge smile that she had no more pain in her leg.
Miracles, healing, joy, homecoming all on one 10 foot stretch of the same street- man is my God awesome. And how incredible of a dad he is that even though I didn’t have to be there for any of it, He allowed me to witness it and be a part of the work that He does everyday. Isn’t it cool that He chooses us despite the fact that He never really needs us. That even though without Him I have nothing to add He willing lets me tag along like a kid seeing through wondrous eyes their father at his job.
