Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Blog Schplog… that’s been my emotion for the last couple of days about blogging. There’s been so much happening that I can’t keep up with it. Tana and I have been busy every day at noon with our rehab ministry. We’ve had a couple of men come over every day, one with an arm that hasn’t moved since he had a stroke years ago. I believe I’ve wrote about him already. God’s doing cool stuff in him. I can start to feel some muscle tone and twitching where there was none before in his bicep and forearm. His hand is still pretty limp, but there’s twitching going on in there. And now we’ve got a new guy. His wife showed up on Sunday afternoon and siad that she knows the Holy Spirit is here and that we laid hands on him, he would be healed. She’s totally got the gift of faith. I said that I’d be happy to massage her husband’s back and give him some stretches, etc… that may help with his pain. She asked me how much it would cost, and I said, well, it’s free, but can we pray with him too? They ended up coming to church that night. And the next day Noah came at noon with his wife.
He shared that he has 3 herniated disks in his back and 8 years ago he shattered his left knee cap (but never had surgery to get pins put in because it wasn’t natural). So, I did some massage on his back and told his wife that it would be good for her to learn. She said that she doesn’t have the strength. We asked if there were any children who could help, but she said that the only child at home also had a back injury and is too weak to help. Scott and I looked at each other and at the same time said that their family is under a generational curse of infirmity or injury. And this 13 year old shared the same name as Noah.
So as I massaged and showed Noah stretches, Scott, Tana, and Jeff prayed for healing. And as I gave Noah excerices for his feeble knee (his knee cap is 2x the size of a normal knee cap) they continued to pray. I continue to pray that Noah would know that Jesus brings healing not only to the body, but to the spirit. That as he’s filled with the Holy Spirit he may have the same faith of his wife. So I continue to pray against doubt, against infirmity, against the lies that he’s been fed.
It’s pretty cool how God has just plunked these guys into my life. This was my job at home, and now it’s as if God is saying, “Hey, remember when I told you I wanted you to go into athletic training, and then I wanted you to go to grad school, and I’ve put jobs in your lap? Well, this is why! There are hurting people around the world who’ve never had anone care enough to put their hands on them and care about their health! But I care, and that’s why I’ve laid out your life like this! You are my hands!”
Scott and I were able to go out on another day on our “day off.” It was wonderful to sit down at a restaurant and order a burger… I think I might actually be getting sick of Mexican food (is that possible?) We ordered a pitcher of fruit water… we picked sandia, without knowing what it was. She came back to the table with a pitcher of pink liquid. Watermelon juice!!! Ahhh, it was so refreshing. By far my favorite liquid here.
And then our work week began. We all had so many plans on how we were going to spend the day yesterday. I was planning a teaching for our home cell group in one of the villages of Palenque and so I had pulled out some paper and my Bible while the rest of Team B went off to breakfast. I got about a page into it (still in my pjs) when the teams came back. It was time for our team meeting. So Nessa sat down outside in the shade in a circle, Shawna pulled out her guitar and we started singing along. Worship turned into prayer, prayer turned into intercession on behalf of the rest of our teammates on B. And so we sat for about 4 and a half hours. So much for our plans.
By the time we finished praying (after lunch), the rains started, so all chances for going into town were thwarted. I managed to finish writing down my teaching (on abandonment… most Americans have no concept of being sold out for Jesus, but I figured the people I was teaching had only been saved a week ago, so why not have them jump in with both feet), thinking that I’d have Meagan translate. Meagan hadn’t showed up by the time we were leaving, so Steph ended up getting stretched last night. And so last night was our first ministry as Team Nessa only. And it was awesome. I shared about John 15… How Jesus wants us to remain in him so that we will bear good fruit. And when we use the fruit, he gives us more to extent to others. If we’re too worried about our own provision, God can’t use us, and we don’t bear any fruit… and then we just wither off the tree. So go practice loving people! Don’t keep preparing to love others (Satan loves how we prepare and take classes and go through programs, because we never actually affect other people), go out and do it! Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Catch the big picture, open your eyes to God’s vision. If you minister to three people and disciple them, you’ve now created 3 more warriors… they’ll be equipped to disciple 3 more, and there’s 9 more. Do the math! Be radical, take the blinders off and see what God sees. He loves people, they are our inheritance. Grab hold.
