A tradition that my teammate Morgan has and decided to bring here to Chile, starting Saturday evening, the 23rd, is going to a poor neighborhood to pass out sweet with cards to pray over the people there. We went one street over and walked down it knocking on each door and talking to each person, giving them a bag of candy and a note written in Spanish telling them Merry Christmas etc.
The beauty entered in the interactions of true openness and acceptance with a few of them.
First there was an old woman whom, when Rafaela asked her about herself, told us about her life, specifically her depressed son and how medicine wasn’t helping. He was in the house but she said he wouldn’t want to be prayed over but she still wanted us to pray with her. So we did and I was already on the brink of tears when afterwards she said she had a newfound confidence and peace for him!
Then we split into two groups, I was the translator for my group, and I talked to another old woman, Ana, who invited us into her house, many of them did, and she told me about her daughter’s illness and her bodily pains so I prayed over her. She was so grateful, even crying a little bit, and we had the most intimate, sweet moment. It was so beautiful I was choking up telling her goodbye..
THEN we gathered together again to walk home because it was getting dark and Ana specifically warned us to not continue on down the street, as we were just 3 young women, so as we were walking I stopped to talk to another old woman walking. She told us she was depressed amongst many other infirmities but that she believes in Jesus, she even wore a rosary, and as Rafaela prayed over her there was such spirit and hope! It was beautiful! As we were saying goodbye she said she was so happy to have encountered us and that she hopes to again <3 I really cried after that.
Finally there was this family of a mother, father, and daughter. The father and daughter didn’t spwak much but the woman had a lot of questions haha. I answered them as best as I could then I translated as Gabby prayed over them (and this woman was a prayin’ as others pray type of gal! -just my type) (her daughter’s a missionary in Romania!!) And it was Awesome that the whole family was so willing to share and take time to talk with us and express their gratitude for missionary work. We’ve decided we might go back next week with different snacks and just check in on them to build more relationships! I’m so excited, the Lord is SO Incredibly beautiful! I love God and serving Him! PTL!
