A true story with an embellished idea~
My mother came to my home as she always does on these cool August nights. It had been a long day in the restaurant and I was always so happy to see the beautiful wrinkled lines of the wise woman who raised me. I was quick to remind her of Christs love as I greeted her with a kiss and the words “ Dios te bendiga” whispering off my lips. Her reaction usually was the typical swat of the hand in the air professing that she knew exactly where this was going. But this time, it was different. My beloved mother gripped my face with both hands clutched around the curls of my jaw bone and proclaimed “He is my savior now, He is my salvation. You don’t need to worry anymore, and with a toothless smile she sarcastically said “So STOP bothering me about it!” There wasn’t much more to say that evening because I knew my mother now belonged to the King of Kings.
The next morning I woke up to a pounding on the door of the restaurant that my family and I lived above. It was a neighbor friend in a frantic rage. I could hardly make out what he was saying right up until I heard the devastating words I never thought would come so soon. Your mother is gone…
My soul gripped inside of me as I began to feel the separation from the one I loved the most.
Three days after the tragic death of my mother, there was a quickening in my spirit to open up the restaurant. Though this was the last thing I wanted to do, I still felt compelled to swing open those dusty old doors leading to the streets of Somoto. Lord knows I needed the profit from working, especially to pay for the funeral expenses and various other things that had come up during the time of mom’s passing. I laid there in bed and began to pray, “Lord, direct my steps today and bless me.”
As the lights flickered on that morning I noticed the dull ache of the restaurants atmosphere. It was cold and quiet and had been untouched since the travesty. I couldn’t help but to think of how life in this little restaurant wouldn’t be the same with out my dear mother taking orders and sweeping floors like the old days. As I began to push open the sealed door I breathed as deeply as I could releasing the desire to hear my mother encourage me “Mas Fuerte, Mi amor.” With tears in my eyes I gazed up into the sky and prayed once again, “Father please bring foreigners to bless me and pray for me, Then I will know you’re with me.” looking back into that old restaurant that once was so lively, I realized it needed some cheering up. So I changed the table cloths to the sunflower pattern (they were my mothers), and started the rotisserie with some chicken .That will give an attractive smell I thought to myself as I proceeded to finish up some cleaning in the back kitchen.
Buenas!!!
I heard a voice from the fount of the restaurant. I quickly dried my hands from doing dishes to attend to the young voice but what I stepped into was an atmosphere far more outside of what I expected. Turning the corner I noticed a face that looked to be Hispanic but defiantly not from Nicaragua, and she sat within a group of 7 other English speakers. After taking their order I could tell there was something different about this group. They love one another, they drip the holiness of my creator. They have come here because God surely sent them. As the girls finished their food I briefly shared with them the events of the last few days and what had taken place. I told them you are going to pray for me and you are going to bless me.
As they laid hands on me they began to call on the Father like angles. They prayed a simple yet powerful prayer of encouragement and reassured me that the Lord was with me. A burden lifted and for the first time I began to rejoice! I began to laugh and smile and the joy of the Lord fell upon me. For a few minutes more we sheared about how the girls ended up here and why God chose this time for such a divine appointment.
Team Girasoles (Team Sunflowers) Visited on the third day after my mothers passing, they were sent here by God on a mission to find and reach the unsung hero’s of Nicaragua. Their job is to come alongside Gods people who are unknown laborers for the kingdom. The leave the comfort of a steady place to live and give fully to support us in our day-to-day lives, ministries and churches. They seek to breath life into the weiry bones of those of us who have grown in need of a new up-spring of life. They spent their first three days in a town 5 hours away from Somoto praying and asking the Lord where to go in Nicaragua. And on their first day Here in Somoto they came to me. They said they knew they were supposed to stay because of the table cloths covered in sunflowers! My God is a God of His word!
