Sitting in a padded chair in what seems to be a normal church service thinking about how this month and all the sicknesses have robbed me from doing exactly what God has called me to do this month, and how much that frustrates me, I began to wonder what could still happen. I thought back to the times where we sat in the park in the center of town and worshiped the Holy Savior of the world, did skits, and people stopping as they walked by and wondered if that was enough of a witness to the people of a town that was given to the devil by the guy who founded it because he wanted to be rich and powerful. Can those times be strong enough to witness to those who have experienced a spiritual war and heaviness their entire lives. Once again I doubted the work again that we have done, just like in Ecuador, but God doesnt wait long to show you He is the one who works and His grace is made perfect in what seems to be your weakness in doing ministry, because if you truly think about the Gospel, who can actually do it any kind of justice, and portray exactly what it means? Who can fully understand all that happens within it?
But sitting in that church, in those padded chairs last Sunday morning, with a heavy cloud cover that has only broken maybe a handful of times since we have been here, God showed up in exactly the way I needed to see Him show up. Nathan was preaching on the healing of man who laid on his mat down by the pool waiting to be healed. After he preached, we wanted to pray for the church community, whether they just wanted to be encouraged. Well, we were overwhelmed by amount of people coming down to be prayed for. People stopped on the sidewalk outside the church in curiosity as to what in the world was going on. The first person to walk down the isle to be healed was an elderly woman who walked with a walker, and it took her a long while to work her way down there. I was thinking in my head that we should walk to her so she doesnt have to exhaust herself, but I think she needed that to see God work in her life, because after the pray, while she still needed the walker, she walked briskly back to her seat in tears and amazement of the power of the Holy Spirit she just experienced.
Another elderly woman came up to me with a blind, fully blue with no pupil eye, and asked that she be able to see again. It still amazes me that the Holy Spirit chooses to use me, but I prayed over this woman, and at the end of prayer, she had full color back in her eye and a pupil again! All she could do was hug me as she cried and walked back to her chair. The woman sitting next to her, then came up and asked for prayer. This continued for a good 45 minutes, people being healed, crying and we all worshiped Christ as He is the only way any of this is possible.
God used a goofy team like this to heal a town, not for them, but to show the power and glory of Christ. And the best part: they can do this as well in this town, because they are empowered by the same Spirit we are empowered by! Such encouragement!
So did sickness get in the way? Nope. Never did and never will. With 6 days left, he showed up huge, in ways bigger than I could have expected, and all we could do was have a giant worship session for the rest of the afternoon where we declared how glorious God is, and how everything happened that morning was by His power. It was truly amazing! And its only month 2!!!!!!!
