We were almost through putting up the new fence on the church property. When we first arrived here, the fence was so beat up that we could step over it. We decided it would be a good project to replace it, and when we mentioned this to Pastor Nestor, he was visibly happy. We had haggled the price for the posts down to 110 pesos each. The posts are 2 meters long, by 3×3 or 4×4. The wood is called chicle. I believe it is a gum tree, and the wood is very heavy and very hard. When Pastor Nestor heard how well we had done on the price he laughed out loud. We thought it was a reasonable price, basically $10 per post. He laughed because the usual price was 16 pesos, or $1.60. The total price we were going to pay for the fence was almost 10 times more than the regular price. Pastor Nestor came with us and cut what we were going to pay to 1/4 the price.
Jake and I spent the whole day out there working on the fence, and Pastor Nestor spent almost the full day. Then Chad and I worked with Nestor until it was too dark. The girls had picked up trash for most of the day, cleaning the road in our own adopt a block program. I heard a commotion and came running over, they found a cat skeleton and then a cow skull. Then I heard Linnea yell something so I came running over, she was brushing something off….
At the September training, we had this time where we were supposed to be hearing from God about where we were called. Gary Black called this asking for our keys. God has given us all keys to the kingdom. The kingdom is his people. As heirs to this kingdom, God has called us to take what has been given to us. This is called the keys. As we were praying I had all kinds of thoughts to process, this was brand new. So I started saying, “OK God, if this is from you, then I am listening, what are the keys you are giving me?” I had thoughts about countries and peoples, but I knew none of them were really from God. Then all of a sudden I was on Google earth, going around the world, but nothing was coming in, and that is when I heard God say, “Wherever you set your feet”. When I heard this, my heart started to pound. It was weird. We were supposed to yell out the keys when we got them, but there was no way I was going to yell that out. Then my mouth felt funny, my stomach got hot, my heart was pounding out of my chest, my knees were shaking like I had just done squats to failure. I said it again, no way, and I felt like I was going to fall over. I looked around to see if anyone noticed what was going on, and no one was looking. As I grabbed the chairs in front of me, I realized that if I did not yell it out, I was going to die. Actually, I figured I was just going down, but then I yelled it out. I had to yell, I could not keep it in any more. Gary says, “Repeat that”. “Say that again”. So I yelled it: “WHEREVER I SET MY FEET!”. Release. Sudden total peace. A feeling of well being came over me.
This is still the most powerful feeling I have ever had, even better than totally blind siding the quarterback. This was real. Not adrenaline or anxiety, I had never actually experienced this before. When we talked about this afterward, it seemed almost everyone had a similar experience, electricity coursing through the body, muscles feeling like they were twitching, knees shaking, but no one said this was unpleasant or scary. This is a memory many of us still talk about.
So when I ran up to Linnea, she was brushing off a house key. Just a simple little key, and mostly to make Jake chuckle, I told him to tell Nestor that I was giving him the keys to Palenque. Nestor gave me an odd look, so I just laughed, because I figured once again I said something dumb.
Wednesday night, we had service, and Chad preached and the service was pretty typical. Then Nestor came up and started talking. Because Chad can preach all night, by the time Nestor came up, I was having alot of trouble concentrating. Suddenly Nestor and Jake were crying and looking at me, so I figured I should smile and nod. Nestor was saying that it was seven years to the day that he had had a vision of receiving the keys to Palenque. God had promised him they were coming. I guess when I did that, seven years to the day later, that vision was fulfilled. I looked around and people were crying, I got up and hugged Nestor.
As I drove toward the village to drop off some of the women, I just had to think that I sure wasn’t trying to be holy or religious. In fact, I had just been thinking that a cerveza would taste great when I brought the keys to Nestor. God used my attempt at humor to speak to Nestor, it wasn’t any thing I had done to look spiritual.
As we were eating dinner that night, a woman walked up with her baby. She spoke Chol, and Nestor’s wife Celina also speaks Chol. This woman had walked into town to this house, because she heard about all the healings. How cool is that? People are coming in from the surrounding villages because they have heard of the miracles God has been working. So we all went inside and started praying. Shawna (a paramedic) and Amy (a nurse) checked over the baby. This baby definitely had a weird look to her. I couldn’t place it. She looked hydrated, but the mom said that the baby hadn’t pooped in a week or peed in three days. Every time the baby eats, she would puke. Not just typical spit up, I guess. The baby had herbs and stuff on her chest, and when the girls bathed her, they found that the baby had black strings from the witch doctor on her. The mom believes in Christ, and said that the woman who had treated the baby was presbyterian, but eventually we found out she had taken the baby to a witch doctor. While we were praying, we realized the mom had to take authority over the baby, and Celina led her in a prayer. This prayer was in Chol, and I only recognized the name Jesucristo, but when mom said Jesus’ name the baby started to wiggle and cry out loud. Up until this moment the baby had looked almost dead.
We prayed some more, and told mom to feed the baby. We left a little while later and the baby was making healthy baby noises. This morning the family came back at breakfast, all smiling, the baby was eating and healthy! Praise God! This is an absolutely true story, with a 1 month old baby. I can’t rationalize this one, other than to say Praise God! Gloria a Dios!
