I was frozen. I couldn’t move and I didn’t know what to say or do.
My team was walking down a main street in Addis Ababa when I notice a young boy seizing on the ground, coughing up blood.
I don’t know if I paralyzed in fear for him or just plain fear.
Within a few seconds, Hanna and Pat were by his side praying. I quickly joined in and realized I was now holding a strangers hand and vying with God for His life. At more than one point during my praying I realized that we could be holding a dying boy and all I wanted him to know was that he was not alone.
After several minutes, the seizing stopped. Praise God!
We were able to sit the boy up and move him into the shade.
Flashback to 2 minutes before stumbling upon the situation. Pat strikes up a conversation with a local, Abey, who speaks pretty good English and he has remained with us translating with the young boy.
Once we were in the shade we began to get more information from the young boy.
His name is Yared.
He left his home about a year ago because his mother couldn’t provide for him. Since then he has been living on the streets begging.
Hanna started asking Yared a few questions and eventually her and Pat sang a song of healing over him. By this point we had learned that he has a disease that causes him to seize often, but he cannot afford the medicine.
Hanna asked Yared if he knew about Jesus and as soon as he shook his head no, she turned to me and asked if I wanted to share the gospel with him.
PIT IN STOMACH
I began sharing about the fall and Christ coming to save us. It was jumbled, messy and broken, but the beauty of that is SO ARE WE! Today was my first time actually proclaiming the gospel to anyone who may have never heard it before, let alone a complete stranger and about 20 people who had gathered at the scene. The usual Sam would analyze the parts that I left out and begin to regret the things I forgot to include, but instead I am overwhelmed with the provision of God to place us in this situation.
I got to share the name of Jesus and the work he did to 20ish random people on the street, because God brought us down this street. Our day was supposed to be spent giving bananas and bread to the street kids we have come to love, and we were on that street because I wanted to see my favorite little kid. Instead the first part of our day was an experience of growth and major God movement!
Ok, back to the story. So I shared the gospel and then Yared shared that he was orthodox and didn’t believe in Jesus. There was no climactic, come to Christ moment…….yet! God is totally pursuing Yared and our translater Abey(who is also orthodox). He has a place in His heart for them and He will move, in His time.
But anyways, we continue to sit and talk to Yared and I start to realize how dirty, torn, and old his clothes are. The Spirit started moving in me and before I knew it I was putting on my sweatshirt and giving Yared the tshirt I was wearing. About 10 minutes later it hit me.
Our first week in Ethiopia, I met a man named Yared(surprise!) who was working at the festival and very cold. I decided to give him a sweatshirt I bought in South Africa, but when I went back the next day he wasn’t there. God had a plan all along for me to clothe Yared, it just looked a lot differently than I realized.
Yesterday was amazing. I saw God move in so many ways that my mind was actually blown! Seriously, this God that we serve is so much more amazing than we can ever imagine. It isn’t something that we can really even comprehend because He is that great!
Irony: a week ago my team stood on stage in front of 1500 people and sang How Great is Our God. Then we end up on a random street proclaiming HOW GREAT HE IS and actually see Him move in a way that only He could have planned.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding. –Proverbs 3:5
“Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For GREAT IS THE LORD, and GREATLY TO BE PRAISED!” -Psalm 96:1-4
with overwhelming joy and love,
sam
