The Move "Did you ever see Rosa again after we prayed for her?" Paint brush in hand, he stopped and looked at me, shook his head and in his Caribbean accented English said "My dude....."
Let me go back a bit. We were painting my old house. Thanks be to God who answered your prayers, we were surprised with an unexpected visit from the landlord of the apartment we were hoping to rent. Zulay and I met with her and she soon let us inside the unoccupied space. Seeing the place covered in dust and knick knacs, Zulay and I began to clean up and organize. In spite of our good gesture, she at first told us that she wasn't going to let anyone live there. Five minutes later, she changed her mind and told us she was going to let us rent! We moved in that next week.
I was a bit unprepared for the move and quickly fell behind in a number of tasks. One of which was painting our old house to rightfully return it in good condition to our original landlord. I had also been hoping to meet up with my friend Santiago (one of the five from the original discipleship group that started in July) and realized that I could kill two birds with one stone. Santiago said he could help paint and soon was on site with a friend in tow. I had only met his friend Roger once before. Both Santiago and Roger speak decent English so we started painting and talking about music, life, and the world to refine their English. The two of them started to talk about church so I asked Roger what church he went to. "I go to your wife's church, the same as Santiago." Santiago explained that Roger had only become a Christian three weeks ago. I invited Roger to explain. This is his story:
"I could never sleep before. I was always scared of evil. I would hear things at night, my bed would move, and I would be scared awake until four in the morning when I would fall asleep because of exhaustion. But one day I started to pray before going to sleep. The first night I asked God to protect me and I slept great the whole night. The second night, again I prayed and I again slept great and never woke up. The third night I forgot to pray, but I slept great anyways. Then one day I went to the beach with Santiago. We spent all day out there and setup a tent for the night when all of a sudden the police showed up. They came in with pistols drawn and were acting like they were going to kill us. Santiago told them to search the tent. He told them we had no drugs; we were Christians. In that moment, I remembered something Santiago had told me before, that there is power in the blood of Jesus. So I kept saying that to myself in that moment. The police calmed down, told us to be careful and left us alone. That night I also slept great. And now, well, I am a Christian."
It's a great testimony and to me the best part is that Santiago was the one present in the background as Roger began to know Christ. The idea is to create disciples that create disciples, and Santiago is now making disciples.
Our time was limited and I figured it would be best to do the Bible study while we painted. Santiago and I have been studying the six basics concerning Christ found in the first few verses of Hebrews 6. We had already studied repentance from dead works (as wells as from the works of death) and faith in God. This week was about baptism. We were just a week late since the church baptized Santiago that Saturday along with three other youth from the original group started back in July. A young man they had evangelized was also baptized. But before jumping into the study, I wanted to review what had happened in the past week.
In the previous week, we had met up to study Hebrews 11. To put it in practice I suggested that we do something crazy: Let's ask God if there's anyone here that God wants us to pray for. We did, and as we prayed a woman in a wheel chair was pushed past. "I think God wants us to pray for her." was Santiago's reply. We got up and approached the woman. It was obvious that she already knew Santiago and warmly greeted him as he approached and hugged her. The woman was missing a leg from the just above the knee. I didn't know her story but figured that she must have been homeless or near to it by the condition of her clothes.
I've heard of other church planters using an opening question when talking with people the first time to determine if they are open to God. The question is: If God could do a miracle in your life, what would it be? I had mentioned the question to Santiago earlier and now felt obliged to ask it of the woman in the wheelchair even though I was almost certain of where the question would lead. I looked at the woman and explained that Santiago and I were praying and asking God if anyone around needed prayer and that God had led us to her. She started to cry. I went ahead and asked her if God could do a miracle in her life, what it would be. She quickly responded that she wanted to walk and cried even more. We had just studied about faith in God: why not, let's pray for it! We both prayed for her to walk in the name of Jesus. Nothing happened, but in my experience, I've rarely seen healing take place immediately. None the less, perhaps there was something else she needed healing from. I asked her if she had any sort of disease not readily apparent. She said no. She had lost her leg in an accident, and . . . in two days she was going to a government ministry to ask for the funds for her to buy a prosthetic leg. So we prayed for God's favor on her and for her to receive more than she needed for her prosthesis.
Now a week later, Santiago was looking at me, about to tell me what happened. I knew that it would be a miracle if she got the funds, given her condition on the street. "My dude . . . I have to tell you, she got double of what she needed for her prosthesis. They gave her the principle of what was owed her plus the interest. She says she loves God so much and thanks him for what He did for her. She was crying when she told me." Glory to God!
That Saturday, my wife's church was holding a talent show and lots of youth showed up eager to participate. Roger came as well and brought a friend: Marcos. He sat through the show and afterwards had a question: Who is God? Stop tape. When I heard Marcos ask that question I was both happy and frustrated. I was happy since Marcos represents the third generation: First Santiago shares with Roger about Jesus, then Roger shares and invites Marcos to find out about Him in short order. I'll tell you why I was frustrated in the next update to keep this short. None the less, I'm excited because I'm seeing and believing that the discipleship chain and generational growth is possible here and can work. Now we just need to refine it a bit and start discipling more people! More on this in the next update as well.
Prayer Points: -Thanks to God for our new apartment. It's on street level and has had a non-stop flux of visitors. Thanks for the blessing of being able to bless others. Pray for just enough time, energy, money to be able to bless all those that come in.
-Pray for outreach to the many addicts in our barrio. There are a lot of deals that go on right outside our door, literally. Pray that God will reach these guys and that they would start consuming and sharing the life and love of God instead of death and addiction. Pray that we can start discipling them!
-Pray for wisdom about roles within and outside established churches for Zulay and I.
-Pray for our visa situation. Zulay was able to register in the census offered by the national immigration office. Lord willing she should have an appointment in two months. Pray for her to have favor with the immigration office and for her to receive her nationality quickly so that I can come in as a resident.
That's it for today! Have a great Easter, He is Risen! Stay strong, seek the Lord and
Press on for Joy!
Cameron |
