This past month has been a bit of a whirlwind and we didn´t really know what our last ministry of the year would look like. On top of that there was a bit of confusion yesterday morning as we were traveling to our next destination. Turns out Concrete wasn´t going to San Pedro, instead we are in San Pablo.
Upon arriving in San Pablo we were welcomed by local Pastor Efrium and his family. We´re living in their house and Betty (the Pastor´s wife) has been cooking for us. This family is so sweet. Two of their kids are living at home, Raina is 4 and Faby is 11. Did I mention that they only speak Spanish and a local dialect while we only speak English? Thankfully we have a Spanish/English dictionary that we´re becoming very familiar with. Anyways, they are an amazing family that love the lord
As for ministry we were told we´d be washing the enormous church windows and that is all we knew of any ministry opportunities. Honestly it didn´t sound to exciting and I think we were all feeling a bit down because we wanted to be used more. And then something happened last night. After dinner we were in the middle of watching a movie on Mark´s computer when the Pastor came in. He had gotten a call that one of his church members was in the hospital. We walked to the house of the family and gathered around the girl´s empty bed to pray for her. She is 18 years old with a high fever and in a hospital about 3 hours from here with no family to comfort her. The mother was weeping as we prayed and asked God to heal her daughter. When the praying subsided we headed back home with a promise to come back tomorrow and pray some more.
Then this morning we were told some terrible news. It seems that as we returned to the Pastor´s home last night and sat down to finish our movie a young man of 18 was committing suicide two doors down from the girl we´d been praying for. My heart grieves. This morning we went to his families’ house. Everyone was gathered in a tiny room, squished together like sardines and weeping over the coffin. There was a window on the coffin that allowed the grieving family to look down on his face. Pastor Efrium led in a prayer and all 60 of us joined him. It was heart wrenching and I was left to wonder if this boy knew how much he was loved.
If all we do here is wash windows, then that´s ok because we´re serving the church, serving the Lord. But I think God brought us here for so much more. I think we´re here to be with Pastor Efrium´s congregation so that we can pray with the sick, grieve with this family and show love to a hurting community.
