Sometimes, in the midst of a hot and dusty day, a girl just needs some Diet Coke. That was this afternoon for me. We were all up on Lomo De Corbina
inviting people to the very first service in the new church we built. So far we’ve erected the walls and placed a tarp over the roof for a covering, but it’s coming along quickly. I wasn’t feeling so hot and thought some extra energy would help so Andrew and I went looking for a Diet Coke. Every tienda we stopped at said they didn’t have any and pointed us on to the next. At the last one we came to, I decided to suck it up and get a regular coke instead. A small family was talking to the tienda worker, but stepped aside when I came up. The little tienda worker poured a cold Coke into a plastic bag for me and handed me a straw threw the barred window. I turned to Andrew to hand him his change when the man next to me stopped us. He asked us if we could help him. He told us about his 7 year old daughter at home who cannot walk, nor talk, nor even eat regular foods. He doesn’t have any money and she needs special vitamins and medicine. Could we help him out? Andrew looks at me and says, “Let’s go to his house and pray for her.” We ask the man if that’s okay and he agrees. He introduces himself as Gregorio and leads us to his little home. We walk into the small two room house and he brings his daugther to us. She lays limply in his arms, her legs twisted beneath her. Her head rolls back as if the muscles in her neck are too tired to hold it any longer. She appears to be metally retarded as well. Gregorio and his wife have three other children too. Their youngest is little Jesus who just had his 1st birthday. We end up praying for his daughter (I can’t remember her name now) and Gregorio too. Andrew and I both asked for the girl´s healing and asked Gregorio to pray as well. He prayed, but didn’t ask God for healing or any of the things he physically needed and wanted. I felt it very strongly that he needed to ask God for these things and the Lord kept giving me Matthew 7:9 which says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” Frustrated that I couldn’t fully express this through our broken Spanish, we decided to get a translator and return. Andrew and I hurried back to the church and got Dana. With her there, I was able to share what the Lord had told me. Andrew felt strongly that we needed to keep asking for healing too. So we prayed again and this time Gregorio
asked for it. And as he prayed, he broke. He cried out to the Lord that he needed help. His family needs money! His daugther needs healing! Lord, help us! And it was then, while he he was holding his daugther close and crying out to God that I realized we were there for him. This day was about Gregorio asking his Provider to provide and believing that He would. God did something in his heart in the way of restoring his leadership and confidence as the man of the house. He was restored with the strength he needed to lead his family… and by leading, I mean leading them in the way of Jesus.
They walked with us to the church after that and we introduced them to Pastor Moses. The church had brought a bunch of snacks and drinks with them, so they gave Gregorio one full bag of chips and toilet paper, plus a couple liters of soda. A woman from the church walked with us back to their home and poured more encouragement into them. She told them that they were going to make it and that they had a new family now with the church. And the church wasn’t going to leave them. She even gave them directions to her home and told them to come anytime. It was so beautiful!
And all this unraveled when I was completely unintentional about ministry. God really does work without us and uses anything and everything at His desire. Its times like these where I am simply
impressed by God.
