What Did We Just See?

 

After we visited Rosa, the little girl, we went to visit an older woman who has been in bed for 8 months. It turns out she is 60 years old and the last time she went to the doctor  he told her there was nothing more they could do for her . As I went into the small bedroom to meet Mayra , she seems so fragile and I reached down to hug her. It was too crowded for all of us so I went out into the open area and sat in one of the chairs to pray. Fear had been spoken into Myra by her doctor and she had problems with her kidneys, pancreas, diabetes, and her right eye had blurred vision. As part of the team gathered in the room, Lynda felt let to pray over her and to bind the enemies assignment. Haidee specifically laid hands on her back and prayed that all disease and sickness would go from her whole body. As the team prayed  they spoke life into her body and for her to be healed the way God created her to be. Her back raised off the bed and she began to say Glory be to God over and over again. We asked her what was happening and she said she felt compelled to rise up and walk. She sat up and walked out of the bedroom into the open courtyard of the house. As we watch her walk into the courtyard she had become transformed, from this sad fragile lady in the bed into a woman with her hands raised up in adoration and joy as she clapped and danced around. Her family were so happy with tears of joy. Her granddaughter who was around 10 to 12 years of age read from the bible in front of us from Psalm 64. Read it, and be amazed of her knowledge of the Bible. The righteous shall be glad and trust in Him. And the upright in heart shall glory. This young girl's father was put in jail with a crime he apparently did not do so she asked if we could pray for her, her mom and sister in hope that her father would be home soon. We joined with them in faith to pray the love, peace and promises of God for justice in this situation. We left there home with everyone giving thanks to God the Father for His faithfulness of healing, restoration and justice. All the glory be to God our Father. We heard through a woman named Indera who is the daughter in law of Myra. She got an update from Myra that 7 hours later she was still singing with joy and vitality for being made whole and her youth renewed. WOW is the words that were coming out of us and the final words for all of us were Praise be to the one, Gloria Dios.
Glory be to God!
Liz and Kim


Our final outrageous story to this day started at about 5 o'clock when arrived at a field in a barrio where a group from that community had come together to worship and hear the Word of God. They were signing under a shelter that consisted of metal poles and a metal roof. We walked across the field and joined them under this metal shelter. We worshipped together and as the pastor finished speaking and our team was about to share with them a storm approached with torrential rain, gale force winds, and cracks of thunder followed by fork lighting that was blinding.  The sounds of the storm was deafening. Everyone moved to the centre of the shelter and we were all pressed together to protect ourselves from the rain. To the worldly eye, this looked like a potentially dangerous moment yet spiritually it was a Holy and powerful time.  A woman from the church started to sing and worship with much fervor and others quickly followed. It was the only thing to do in this outrageous storm where we were all in the worst place we could possibly be to be struck by lighting. There were no options but to trust God in this hour for protection. The fork lighting was all around us and as we looked into the faces of the children pressed all around us, some with their eyes closed with the most joyful smiles on their faces worshiping Jesus. We knew at this point that we were looking into the face of the joy, confidence and peace trusting the faithfulness of our heavenly Father. Its hard to put into words, the tears and laughter in that time for the presence of love and peace was so thick in that shelter. The rain did not stop, but we had opportunity to pray for many and see the love and power of Jesus heal the sick, open deaf ears, and bring healing and peace to broken hearts. We left with many hugs and kisses to our brothers and sisters and quickly ran through the field and back into the safety of our van. The rain had slowed down as we prepared to leave the intense event that had happened. 

Once in the van, we all looked at each other in complete and utter amazement. All we could say was "wow"!  What did we just witness? Did this really just happen? Distracted by our awe, we failed to see the after effects of the deluge on the landscape.  Our trusted driver, and new brother in Christ, Chepe, is a pro Indy driver on this scarred landscape.  He takes on challenges that many would quiver at.  The power of the storm and the amount of water that fell, turned the deep dry crevasses of the road into small lakes but Chepe drove with skill and confidence.  I'm sure it must have been very difficult to gage the depth of these puddles and clearly Chepe found it so.  Approaching what seemed like a very large pond in the road, our van stopped with the lights staring into our next adventure.  There wasn't much wiggle room either left or right but Chepe made his final decision and went for it. It wasn't poor judgement at that time, it was just fate and it was our fate at that moment to find ourselves in the biggest, deepest puddle in the barrio.  A moment of brief silence fell as it dawned on all of us that it was now dark and we were strangers in this area and definitely there would be no CAA to rescue us. We were seriously stuck. We decided to do what we came to do here in Nicaragua and we started praying and praising God.  It seems counter intuitive in many was but it was a moment where we felt God was asking us "Do you trust Me? Will you still praise Me"?  A few of us took it upon ourselves to get out of the van and try and push.  It wasn't easy looking out the side door of the van into the water that came right up to the doorway.  On solid ground you can actually see how far down you're going to step but in this situation you said your prayers and stepped in faith that there would actually be a bottom and that it wouldn't come up to your neck.  This was not the time for tripping!  A careful step into the water and down we went, knee deep into the mucky water -  the whole time resisting the urge to entertain just exactly what we were stepping into.  Stepping down was easy.  Trying to lift our feet up an out to move proved more challenging.  The suction was so great that there was a brief shock when we would realize our feet would not move at the pace we had anticipated and a face plant seemed to be inevitable, but we managed to avert any... thank you Jesus.  And although there were no face plants, there were a few shoe casualties and a couple of our team members, Kim and Liz, ended up barefoot, kindly donating their shoes for the locals to discover once the water evaporated.  As bold and honourable as it was to think that we could possibly budge this enormous vehicle, clearly it wasn't going to happen. Back into the van we piled in.  It wasn't long until the locals came by to see the spectacle lodged in their dirt road.  Six white, north American women crammed into the back of a white van hoping to add a little weight for some traction, and uncle Don sloshing around in the muck giving everything he had to get us out.  We were in there good. Many from the community came to help.  A man on a motorcycle even got off his bike and got knee deep in the muck with us.  It was a valiant effort made by all but our efforts seemed futile. So, we waited. Thankfully it wasn't long when we finally saw lights in the darkness from behind us. Lo and behold, out of the darkness, our knight appeared in the form of a tractor.  A tractor?  Yes, a tractor.  Surely someone called for this equipment?  Curious, Annette asked Chepe if he called for a tractor.  Chepe said "No, God sent it".  Chepe, the man who just gave his heart to Jesus the day before called it as it was.  We were about to get rescued by a tractor from Jesus.  You need to know that tractors aren't common where we are and this proved to be even more miraculous.  Thankfully we were only stuck for about 20 minutes and then we were blessed with the perfect time and the perfect equipment to get us out of a seemingly impossible situation. In complete awe, we were laughing and crying for all things are possible in Jesus.  When it's dark and things seem insurmountable, Jesus is always there. Will you trust and still praise Him though you cannot see?

Haidee and Kim