Was Lost but then I was Found.
Luke 15:4-7 says, “what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for i have found my sheep which was lost! I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one dinner who repents than over the 99 righteous person who need no repentance.
On March 3rd our team goes out into what is called a red zone neighborhood. The neighborhood isn’t safe and a lot of gang activity occurs. We are there handing out food and praying for different families.
The day reminds me of spring. It is warm with a cool breeze moving through the air. We stop at house number 1 which has a wonderful Guatemala Mother/Wife and three beautiful little girls. We are able to pray from blessings and healing over their house. We then head to the second house while standing outside my eye goes to a poster. This poster had not been up long, the paper still looks brand new and it had a girl on it who looked to be no more than 15/16 years old, with these big gorgeous eyes. It’s all in Spanish but in that moment I know this girl is Lost and people are looking for her. I said a prayer over the girl and that the Lord can bring her home.
We go to other houses but my heart stays on the girl on the poster. My heart wants her to be found.
Fast Forward a week, it’s March 10. There is a similar feel in the air. Our ministry on Wednesdays looks similar. We go to the first house and pray for the family with the daughters and then we head to the second house. The same place and the same pole. I look but see that the poster has been ripped and pieces of it remained. My heart hurt because I knew that girl hadn’t been found and I was afraid she was being forgotten. I prayed again for this girl and that she would make it home and God would protect her throughout her time. Then we head to a third house we haven’t been to before. We meet a beautiful family who had a funny four year son, a sweet 9 year old daughter, and a hardworking mother. The mother wasn’t at the house and so we waited for about 15 minutes until she arrived. Delaying stopping and praying for a fourth family we had intended to spend time with. We are able to pray for this family however and when we were done they decided to walk us to our car. They took us down a different path then we had originally gone.
Then up ahead I see a group of people, family members and neighbors hugging, giving a poweraid, and loving on what seemed to be a girl. As we walked passed she had huge tears in her eyes and she made eye contact with me. In that moment I knew who she was and tears came to my eyes.
It was the same girl on the poster. She had seriously just made it home to her family and was alive. Now I don’t know where she had been or what happened, In what we found out were 15 days, all I know is she was lost and now she is found.
From this blog I could go off and write about the power of prayer, how God rejoices and celebrates you even more when you come home to Him, or a hundred more topics I haven’t even thought of yet. However I just want to say Thank You God.
Jesús thank you for bringing this child home to her family. I thank you for allowing our time with the third family to go longer than planned. It allowed you to show me that my prayers were heard and this girl was not forgotten. Thank you for showing us how much you do care about the one sheep who strays from the 99. How much wether she sees it now or not that you protected her. Lord I thank you for listening but also showing me your power. Most importantly I thank you for protecting your child and I pray she is able to grow closer to you Lord.
