Praying for the sick

What a day! I don't even know how to start. I guess the beginning is always a good place. John preached this morning at church. Since the group has only been meeting for 14 months, John talked about the church in Acts 1 and 2, specifically Acts 2:42: preaching the word, fellowship, communion and prayer. He brought out Amos 7:8, the Lord's plumb line. He brought out a plumb line and gave everybody little levelers as a reminder. They are going to hang the plumb line in their church as a reminder to stay faithful. He did a great job. Thank you for your prayers. We know that His word won't return void.

After church, we gave some people a ride; then we followed the pastor to the other town where he wants to do an event. We get an average of six people from this town as regular attenders, if the creek doesn't rise. I am not kidding. There is an actual creek that can be passed on bicycles if it is low. They talked about crossing the creek, and I thought just going across at a low point, but you actually have to ride on the creek for about a quarter of a mile. That is the road. This town is even smaller. They have a soccer field and a school, but no cantinas, no dance hall. There are about 45 homes in the entire town. Melciades, the believer from town who attends the church says that the whole town will attend any event they have because there is nothing else to do. We prayed for an event in May when we come back.

We returned to our friends house and had a quick bite of some sandwiches, picked up the missionary lady, Damaris, who is doing the sewing classes for two weeks, and left with the entire group in our car, five adults and three children. Safety belt laws did not apply. I am so impressed by this national missionary who lives on very little. Her love for the people and the Lord is so obvious in her life. The ladies here just love her to the point that she has women at her door from seven in the morning to way past midnight. I talked to her before we left and told her that I was going to let her speak and pray, and I would pray after her. She is from this country and knows how to talk to them much better than I. I sat back and got a great lesson on how to testify and pray for the sick.

We arrived at the sick woman's house in a town about 30 minutes ride from ours. We had to cross another creek, but this time it was just crossing it, not riding it. The house consisted of wood planks with big gaps in between, a very uneven dirt floor, open wood fire stove, no running water, an outhouse in the back. There were only four seats, three wooden stools and an actual chair where the lady sat. She has sciatic nerve problems, a hip that needs replacement, and a bad back. Damaris talked about her problems and even asked to see her medications. She is taking some pain medication, anti-inflammatory, and something for stomach acid. Damaris asked her then if there were people in her life that she needed to forgive. She mentioned a daughter. Then it got interesting. Damaris asked for a rope or a string. She explained that when we are little, we don't have conflicts, but as we grow older, we get hurt by different people. She started giving examples of different hurts and tying knots. She said that we carry grudges that cause us to have stomach acid, and other physical illnesses. When we accept the Lord, we need to forgive people. She illustrated this by untying the knots. Then she handed the cord to the lady and told her to tie knots representing her hurts, but not to say them out loud. Then she went into the plan of salvation. How we are forgiven, etc. She asked the lady if she wanted to be forgiven, and she said yes. She prayed the believers prayer. At this point she still had the cord with the knots representing people who had hurt her. Damaris then told her to untie the knots and forgive the people by name. Then and only then we prayed for her healing. It was very intense.

John and our friend had gone for a walk to give us women some privacy. When we were done, I went with the little boy to find them, but they weren't at the soccer field as we thought. We walked back to the house a little puzzled. The only other place would have been the cantina, and I knew they wouldn't be there. The lady's daughter said that they were probably at the house of one of the golf course workers who lives across from the soccer field. We walked there, and of course, that's where we found them. Now this house was totally different because this man has a good job. They had beautiful tile floors, nice furniture, a TV. It was quite a contrast. This man has three children, one is already an English teacher, and the other two are finishing their degrees. We got back to the sick lady's house and sat down to have the best cup of coffee I had in a long time. Wood fire and a sock with the grounds, they pour the boiling water through the sock a few times. It is unbelievable good. I remember that kind of coffee from back home.

We drove back to our town, dropped off our friends, and came back here, just in time to watch the Chargers. We were tired, covered with dust and sweat, but glorifying the Lord for the privilege of being used for His kingdom. Thank you very much for your prayers,

I am sorry this blog is so long, but we are very excited about the events. Until next time...from the beach...