(Continued from Clara’s Story Part 1: http://christinadombrowsky.theworldrace.org/?filename=a-real-life-job-claras-story-part-1 )
Clara is currently being hospitalized because she couldn’t afford her insulin… so she just didn’t take it. She has been in the hospital for 2 weeks; she was having heart and diabetic complications. She is in the Cardiology wing at the hospital 2 blocks from the church where I am staying, so I go and visit her almost every day. Florina, her daughter, is currently staying with Pastor Cristi’s family -he has a daughter her age (and 2 younger ones).
When I posted that last blog, Clara and Florina’s situation was very precarious: just at the time Clara was going into the hospital they found out they were going to be evicted at the end of this month, because Clara owes about $3,500 USD on her apartment and has not paid in 3 years. Their situation seemed impossible: Clara was in the hospital – and not doing so well, but even if and when she did get better, where would she go home to? She was about to lose her apartment!
About this time, (this was last week) I started to re-read the book ‘Sun Stand Still’ by Steven Furtick. I had read this book last Fall, and honestly it was a catalyst in encouraging me to apply for The World Race. The book encourages us to pray audacious prayers. To ask God for the impossible. He is God: God of miracles and God of the impossible. It’s almost a waste when we ask Him for the itty bitty little things- he cares, he does- because He’s God; but He wants us to ask Him for the impossible. Immediately I was convicted to pray for Clara –and to rally others to pray for Clara (that was the night I posted on Facebook to pray for her, if you happened to see it). So I did.
the impossible happened!
Pastor Cristi came over for breakfast, as he often does. And he told me after breakfast he was going to meet with the Home Owners Association of Clara’s Apt Complex – he said he had no idea what he would say to them, but he had called the day before to schedule a meeting –because he felt like he had to at least try to help. The woman from the HOA was rude and seemed to think Clara was just another migrant tenant who didn’t want to pay her bills. Cristi asked me if I wanted to pray for him before he left. I said “HECK YEAH, I do!” and then I gathered up everyone after breakfast to pray for Cristi’s meeting and for God to soften the HOA lady’s heart to Clara’s situation …and for God to work a miracle. None of us had any idea what that might look like, but that’s when God comes in. When we can’t even imagine HOW a situation might be able to work out, THAT’s the kind of stuff God wants us to Him. That’s when He really gets to flex his muscles and we get to see the power of our God- the God of the impossible.
You can imagine my excitement when at dinner Cristi tells us that the same HOA lady he had spoken to by phone had given Clara a 1 YEAR EXTENSION to pay her bills! And she was even making suggestions that Clara should try and sell her apartment and buy a smaller one (which seems crazy b/c Clara’s apt is already a super tiny studio), so she’d have enough money to pay off her debt. She was trying to help! Evidently she was so moved by the fact that Cristi cared enough to try and help Clara that she, too, wanted to help! I gotta call it like I see it: IT WAS A MIRACLE!
We still don’t know how Clara is going to continue to pay her bills, but we are celebrating the fact God is working in her situation …and she is going to have a home to go home to! And she is going home this week! I am going to visit her tonight at the hospital and she will let me know what the Doctor said. She has been doing SO much better: we’ve been praying for days for the swelling in Clara’s feet to go down, and last night I was able to see a marked difference!
It’s really touched my heart to be able to bear witness to all God is doing in her life …and I’m just so stoked to be asking God for miracles- and seeing them happen before my eyes!
It’s neat all that God is revealing to me this month and how much fun I am having learning it all. It’s going to be tough to leave Romania and all the beautiful relationships I’ve built here. In the meantime, I’m planning a Welcome Home party for Clara later this week 🙂
