Hello everyone!
This past Thursday we had an activation lesson, activation is where the whole squad gets a teaching from the Adventures in Missions Guatemala staff then we go out and do it. This lesson was about healing.
Healing by laying your hands on someone and casting out pain is something I believe can happen, partly because I’ve now seen it, but being completely honest it’s something I still struggle with. How am I able to do something so unbelievable? How can I do something Jesus, the Son of God, can do? We had this talk then were asked to pray over anyone in the squad that was feeling ill or pain. I raised my hand as I was having some back and neck pain. A few girls in my squad put their hands on me and prayed over my pain and suddenly I no longer felt it! Afterwards, we were asked to ask the Lord where we needed to go to spread healing. My whole team, including myself, felt we had to go to a hospital.
Hospitals. I am not a fan of hospitals. The whole place always feels sad and heavy. People die, find out they have cancer, have risky surgeries, even lose limbs sometimes. Really the only positive is babies being born or someone finding out they’re cured from a crazy disease. Needless to say, it’s not the first place I think of when I think of pleasant places. However, on this particular day, I felt we had to go.
We got there and found out we needed permission to go inside. However, someone called for us so we were able to go into the hospital! We still have no idea who called in for us, but how cool! Thanks God! Clearly we needed to be there.
We separated into smaller groups. Val, HPK and I went off and prayed over a woman outside the hospital. She told us her sister had just given birth. I prayed joy and health over the baby, she thanked us and we moved on. We then prayed over a woman, also outside the hospital, for her diabetes and leg infection. Another woman we’ve talked to multiple times in Bola de Oro had the same condition until we arrived and prayed over her. The woman from Bola de Oro can now walk even though when we met her she couldn’t because of the condition (and hadn’t been able to for three months). Now getting to pray healing over another woman with the same condition? God you did it once we know you can do it again! I don’t know what will happen with that woman but I know God is working in her.
We later went into the hospital and met up with our group who were in the pediatrics area singing “Waymaker” in Spanish to babies who had all kinds of sicknesses. Seeing Makayla all dressed up in a mesh type of gown, hairnet and face mask while holding a guitar singing to these children was such a sweet image.
This past week we’ve had a bunch of World Race coaches observing what we do. Most of them are new coaches waiting to be assigned a squad and I’m so happy they got to see what we do this week. They loved on us so much and even gave us all goodie bags with candy on Halloween! American candy made us all very excited, a lot of the squad ate all the candy within five minutes of receiving their bag haha.
Anyway, one of the coaches and I went into the women’s center of the hospital and into this one particular room she felt drawn to. I got to translate as best I could which is something I never thought I’d be able to do as my Spanish isn’t perfect but it worked out. One woman had just had surgery, (I don’t know what kind because I was able to ask her how she was feeling but then could only pick up that she felt pain. “From what?” you may be asking, trust me I wish I could tell you but I’m asking as well) and she lifted her hospital gown and wanted me to touch the cast around her stomach and pray for her. Not gonna lie, I was nervous to touch it but she stepped out in faith that I could really help her (thanks to the power of Jesus) so I decided I would step out too. After praying over her she said she felt a lot better and the pain wasn’t as great. Praise God! We prayed over her again and said our goodbyes to find our group again. God is really working through that hospital it’s nuts!
The heaviness I usually feel in hospitals had decreased so much to the point where I felt peace over the entire building. An overwhelming sense of peace and hope flooded this place I, and some other people, I don’t think I’m alone in this feeling, usually feel sad and like I have a weight on my shoulder. Thanks God!
That’s all I have on that story but before you click away to read another blog or watch funny videos on YouTube, I’d love to talk quickly about my team.
Team Esther truly has become my family. There’s so much trust, love, support and laughter in this family. I love each and every one of the girls on my team. That being said, only Makayla and I are fully funded. We are so grateful and thankful for our supporters and it’s been so nice for both of us to not have to worry about fund raising while on the race. Rarely getting wifi doesn’t help with trying to fundraise the amount of money we need to to stay on the race either. If you’d like to help my family raise their funds and you’re reading this on a computer you should see my team mates on the left hand side of the screen. If you click one of their pictures you’ll find yourself on that persons blog and their donation link will be there too. If you’re reading this on a phone, click on the meet my team tab to find their blogs and donation links. Thank you so much to anyone donating to them. Not only does it mean a lot to the individual you’re donating to but also our team as a whole. Thank you so much for all the support!
See you soon!
-Chelsea
