“Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” –Matthew 18:4
Each morning my team christens our day with prayer. We pray for what God is accomplishing here in Azua, Dom. Rep. We pray that our eyes be opened to how He wants to use us. We pray for friends and family at home. We pray for one another. We pray for miracles. And then we pray on the Armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
There are six pieces of armor. There are six Dunamisses. There are NO coincidences. Karen prays on our Helmets of Salvation; Becky prays on our Breastplates of Righteousness; Liz, the Sword of Spirit; Laura, the Belt of Truth; and Monica, the Sandals of Peace. I pray on our Shields of Faith! At Launch, when we chose to do this and each selected which piece of armor to be responsible for, I doubt we could have recognized just how prophetic those match-ups would prove to be.
At least, in my case, I believe I felt led to pray for Shields of Faith because my personal shield needs to grow. If two weeks on The World Race have taught me anything, it’s that God will ask you to do some CRAZY things on NOTHING but FAITH! IT would seem crazy enough to show up at a school with intentions of reaching EVERY child with a tract, knowing that we don’t have anywhere near enough. But God has managed to reach each of them anyway! It would seem crazy to lead an entire church service in English when EVERY member speaks Spanish. But God still wrote a name in the Book of Life that night! With every new day, new challenge and new victory, God is enlarging my Shield of Faith, prepping and protecting me for more to come.
He knew I would need it for this:
September 20, 2012
For a week or so, we’ve been trying to schedule time to pray for healing of a 12-year-old boy with bone cancer. When our chance finally came, I felt my chest tighten. Along the five-minute drive from Raul’s church to the little boy’s home, the feeling was similar to what I used to experience right before a district softball game. (It’s a poor comparison to God’s work, I know, but just the same, “Wally” – the little boy – told us that baseball is his favorite sport. It fits!) I knew what could happen! I knew the weight of the situation. I “knew” that I needed to bring my A game. I wanted headphones and some “get pumped” jams, a swig of lemon Gatorade, a mouthful of sunflower seeds, my routine prayer during the National Anthem and the invigorating pop of a ball in my glove to get me going! Alas, God has a different warm up routine, so instead, I had a gorgeous sunset, the gut-check of death hovering unwanted, rocks in my shoes, dirt in my teeth, Spanish chatter everywhere, mosquitoes shooting up every opening they could, and a growing anger that I just couldn’t explain. But the game was starting, ready or not!
The view from Wally's backyard! How sick is this!!?!?! Can't imagine walking outside every morning to this beauty!! (Although, Allegre is pretty gorgeous in it's own right!)
With armor strapped on tight, my team knelt to pray, laying hands on this precious child who was ready and willing to receive whatever God had for him. I have a hard time watching children suffer. As if we don’t live in a tough enough world already, I see severe injustice when kids are sick or hurt or caused undue stress or robbed of their innocent youth. As we prayed over this beautiful boy, that unexplained anger from earlier began to make more sense.
“THIS IS NOT FAIR, GOD!” My head seemed to be screaming out. “WHERE IS YOUR PURPOSE IN THIS PLAN?” Never-the-less, the team kept praying (check out Karen Thyer’s blog recount of the Holy Spirit’s presence falling on Wally!) and I kept begging God to right this wrong! To spare this child! To gain glory through his victorious testimony! And I still felt angry!
Literally, out-of-nowhere, we looked up from praying to find four of the local children we’ve come to know had gathered in our prayer circle. These kids had run (they run everywhere here) a sizeable distance to even show up at this house. They had no clue what we were saying (we pray in English, with no translator) but they knew what was going on, for sure! Sweet little hands folding front of dirty faces; eyes squeeze shut and lips spoke words of healing over their friend. WE invited them closer, allowing them to lay their hands on Wally’s leg and ask God to heal him in their own beautiful ways.
I lost it! I pulled back from the circle, gave my foot a moment to regain blood flow, and began pacing the yard having quite the convo with God.
“WHAT GIVES!?! These children are here, fully trusting that You can do a mighty work and still, no fireworks! Grow my faith, God! They’re showing me up! They believe you can do anything; so do I, but I just want to see something happen.”
“Oh… Faith isn’t seeing, is it?”
These kids get that. Wilson, Jovalene, Manuel… all of them… they know that Dios (God) can do EVERYTHING and they aren’t ashamed to ask with all their might. They aren’t afraid to expect greatness! And they are willing to accept that he heals in many different ways.
Their Shields of Faith are ENORMOUS! So from now on, I think I’ll pray for mine to be kid-sized, too.
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
