Yesterday a prayer of loneliness and despair was raised up the King of Kings, and he heard her prayer. Her name is Caralisa, she is a Nicaragua women who lived on the outskirts of the city dump in Managua. And yesterday an adventures group of wanders stumbled upon her in her time of most need.
The best part of this story is that the answer to her prayer was on their way to Managua long before she even cried out to God.
You see we were the answer her prayer. But how did we even meet Caralisa? Only through the all knowing hand of our Savior.
Thursday morning, 5 world racers set out from Jinotepe in the back of a pick up truck with a slight idea of where we are meant to go. Greg & Sam Elam’s house was our destination. We knew some road headed out of Managua, at Kilometer 20ish. Really – that is the complete truth. That is all that we could tell the people driving us, and the best part of it was that were completely ok with driving until we saw the sign. There is was Lomas de Alabanza (Hills of Praise) at km marker 21.5.
We pull up as Sam our new best friends was leaving to pick up her daughter. She welcomes us to her home, shows us around her barn that would make Brooke drool, and says set up camp I’ll be back in a half hour and we can go a concert at the city dump.
Yes, you read that correctly! A man who goes by the name “Greg Again” formerly of “Dispatch” has been setting up mission trips for college age student in Virgina to spend their spring break in Manauga, Nicaragua playing with orphans. Yesterday was called the “Day of Light/Dia de Luz”, which meant that these 200 some students spent their day in the dump, one of the largest in the world, getting really dirty playing with the all those beautiful babies. We wind and mingle our way though the dump to the opposite side to find an open field filled with Nicaraguan kids, Virginian College Students, a massive sound board, stage and artist singing out praises to God.
We arrived with just enough time to find out who all these people were, and hear the last song. But we did get to love on a few of God’s greatest creations and prayer over some of the residents who live and work in this dump.
On our way out, racing to beat the sun and remove ourselves from what could get sketchy, Tiffany, Greg & Sam’s 11 year old daughter sees Caralisa on the side of the road crying and asked if we could stop and pray for her. Jenny pipes in with a request just to give her a hug. We hesitantly agree, and these 4 World Race women lead by our mighty leader Tiffany, surround Caralisa and begin praying for her. As soon as we approach, she broke down into sobs unable to communicate. So we simply break into prayer all together. Before we know it she is falling in our arms and we are on the ground praying healing and blessing and comfort over this women. That is when we find out that she is all along and was crying out to God for someone to love her. She is pregnant, along and scared. She believes in GOD but yesterday she needed to see him. That is why 5 World Racers ended up there – all to answer the prayer of this lonely child of God.
I know that God answers prayers, I know that he uses other people to be the answer to my prayers, but I have never been so sure in all my life that I was an answer to a prayer as I was while holding this women in my arms.
I am quickly discovering that opening up my life to the will of God WILL lead me to places that I could have never imagined on my own.
“I called, you answered, and you came to my rescue and I just want to be where you are.”
