I have some exciting news of what God has done in the past 2 weeks. I wanted to share with all of you guys about how God has been using our ATL (Ask The Lord) ministry. Laura Overs, Joann Weng, Caleb Austin, and I decided this semester to devote four hours each Friday to seek out the Lord’s will and act upon what we hear. We have rooted our ministry in prayer, worship, and evangelism. Two Fridays ago brought our ministry into a different direction and definitely showed us that God is actively at work in the city of Granada.
This particular Friday started out with all us in the House of Prayer in the back of El Puente. We were also fortunate to have two other people join us for this outing; our new leader, Seth Barnes Jr. and our faithful translator, Mario Rincand. We all gathered at the House of Prayer around ten in the morning and we spent ten minutes in silence to see where God was leading us. Then we broke out into corporate prayer and asked for God to utilize us. We then discussed what we felt God was pressing on our hearts, and both Laura and I felt God pushing us to walk down to the lake. As my eyes were closed during our time of prayer, God put colors of blue and green in my mind and kept speaking the word water to me. So that was enough confirmation for us and we all headed out to see what God had planned.
We decided to only take one guitar that day and Caleb Austin did the honors of carrying it on his back. As we were about to approach the lake, we had some fruit vendors from across the street shout out to us to play a song. So we thought this was a great way to introduce the gospel to these guys and perform two of our goals by worshiping and evangelizing. However, God had something else in mind. As we approached the four Nicaraguan men, one of them instead wanted to play a song for us. So we let him pluck away and we got to enjoy a semi-intoxicated version of the Beatles’ song, Hey Jude. I bought an orange from one of the vendors and started to strike up a conversation with another man that was with them named Bismark. I asked about his family, his job, where he lived and if he went to church. He was a very soft spoken man in his late 20s and he talked about his wife, son, and baby on the way. He also shared of his love for Christ and his involvement in their local church. And disheartening, he told me of how his wife had been sick for the past four days with a strange illness. He described to me that she was suffering from a horrendous fever and small, painful sores all over her body, which burned and itched constantly. I then asked him if we could go to his house and pray over her, and he was more than eager to invite us over. I now knew why God initially brought us down to the lake this particular day.
We walked through a wooden door that was basically an entrance to what looked like a tiny backyard with a small shack in the middle of it. The space was enclosed all around by concrete bricks and the shack was made of rusted tin. The outside was adorned with a few metal rocking chairs, clothes lines, a washboard to clean clothes, a brick oven, various trees, and other plant life. We waited for a few minutes for the wife, Yanira, to join us and we talked a little more with the husband about why some random gringos from all four corners of the US were doing in the middle of Nicaragua. We shared with him how we had seen a life change in us from our relationship with Christ and how we wanted to share that with the people of Granada. We expressed our desire to bring to life the church of Acts 2 by devoting ourselves to teaching, fellowship, healing, communion, worship, and prayer. As his wife came out to join us, they were both in somber moods. We told them how we believed in the power of prayer and the laying of hands written about by Paul in 1st and 2nd Timothy. So we all gathered around her to petition the Lord for a miraculous healing upon her life. We prayed fervently for about 15 minutes, and then Seth shared through Mario’s translating a blessing over the family. He also shared with them that God does not always answer the way we expect. It is sometimes “yes”, sometimes “no”, or even sometimes “wait”, nonetheless, He does answer. We encouraged them to have hope in the Lord and that His ways are above our ways, that His understanding is above our understanding, and that His will always takes precedence. We ended our time together by all praying one after the other, seeking God’s will in the matter and that He would be glorified by whatever outcome. We left our new friends’ house with invigoration and anticipation of what God was going to do it. I couldn’t wait to come back next week and see the power of God’s mighty hand.
The following Friday started out as chaotic, and it caused our schedule to get backed up. Also, our ministry team got cut in half that day because of confusion and conflicting schedules, so Caleb Austin and I decided to head out alone to see what God had planned instead. All week, God had put that Christian couple on my mind, and I so desperately wanted to see God work a miracle in their lives. Therefore, we decided to head back to their house and find out if God had showed up. Upon our return, we met the husband, Bismark, outside and his spirits looked rejuvenated. He took us into their backyard and we were over-joyous to see the wife, Yanira, completely healed. Her fever had dissipated, her sensation of burning and itching had subsided, and her small, swollen sores had vanished. Bismark also gave us some more insight into this amazing God story. He informed us that the previous Friday was unusual for him to be where he was. He usually works in the morning selling fresh donuts around the neighborhood, but God had told him not to work that morning and instead work in the afternoon. If he had been working, we most likely would never have had met him. It was only by the providence of God that our crossing of paths was orchestrated. We were so ecstatic of how God brought us together and how He brought healing that we thought it would be a great idea to praise God with some worship songs. So we played a little concert for the couple in Spanish, which included the songs, Here I Am to Worship (Vengo a Adorarte) and This Is the Air I Breathe (Eres Mi Respirar). We finished together by holding hands and lifting up prayers to God of gratitude, adoration, and praise. We were so thankful for what God had done for this family and we asked for continual blessing their lives that would spark life change in those around them and that this would spark a revival in their church and community. We left feeling like we got to play a small part in this grand story of God and it was amazing to catch a glimpse of Him at work.
I am so thankful for what Christ is doing in me and through me, what He’s doing on this team, and what He’s doing in Granada. We have so many different ministries going on and this is just one story of how God is changing lives. I thank everyone of you who have allowed me to be a part of such an amazing trip through your prayers and financial support. I pray that I will continue to seek out and know God’s heart beat and compassion for this city.
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