A Week of Faith

     “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

            This week at VBS in the mornings, the theme was faith. We told several stories to the kids about people being healed because of their faith. God works in some pretty cool ways. And this week, He took our theme at VBS and made it the theme of several of our encounters with people throughout the week. 
    On Tuesday afternoon, Tommy,Laura, Jake, and I visited a man named Ricardo. Ricardo had lived in Guachapita for roughly 60 years and was one of the founding fathers of the community. Obviously, he had seen a lot in Guachapita. Ricardo is a Christian, and it was obvious that His faith in God influences his beliefs about the needs for Guachapita. He talked about how one of the biggest needs for the community was unity. He also talked about the younger generation. He said that most of them didn’t have the same beliefs as him and weren’t Christian. He seemed to lack faith that God could change their hearts. We tried to encourage him that nothing is impossible with God and that God could change the hearts of the younger generation. Ricardo said that he knew that nothing was impossible with God, but it seemed like he still struggled to believe it. At the end, we prayed with Ricardo for the younger generation. I will definitely continue to pray for the younger generation of Guchapita. I believe that God is working in this community. Miguel (our ministry contact) has talked about how Guchapita has changed a lot in the last year or so. During our few weeks in this community, I have seen the hope of Christ in many people. I know that God is going to continue to work in Guchapita. 

   On Thursday morning, during VBS, we talked about the story of the paralytic man who was healed by Jesus after his friends lowered him through the roof. Right after finishing the story, a man in a wheelchair came by. Rachel suggested that it seemed like the perfect time to put our preaching into practice. So we stopped him and asked if we could pray for healing for him. The man’s name was Ricardo (I know. Two different Ricardos in one blog. Sorry for the confusion. Haha.), and we later found out that he was paralyzed after being shot in the chest. Tommy and others talked to him later that afternoon, and Ricardo talked about how he knew that God saved his life and expressed his gratitude for that. Anyways, we asked him if we could pray for him, explained to the kids what we were doing, the kids gathered around, and we prayed. The man wasn’t healed that day, but I do believe he will be as we continue to pray. It was just too much of a coincidence of the timing of when we saw him, and because I serve a God who is sovereign over all, I don’t believe in coincidences. If nothing else that morning, it was an awesome opportunity to teach the kids about praying for others and having faith for others just as the paralytic man’s friends did for him. 

   How awesome that God gave us two opportunities to express our faith in Him during the same week that we were teaching kids about faith. Pray that our expressions of faith will encourage the community to have faith. May God be glorified as the faith of the people of Guachapita increases.