Sitting on the street, hanging out with friends, talking about our plans for the next week, working peanuts, doing the day to day things, pr@ying and blessing one another…that’s what we do. In the midst of those things comes sweet moments and glimpses of G0d at work in the lives of our friends!
While working peanuts one day, out of the blue came the questions…”what is your Christian name? what did you say my Christian name was?” Then statements like…”Tomorrow I am coming to your house for you to pr@y for my trip to see my brother and to pr@y for him, he is sick.” And later our friend says, “When I return from my trip, I want to be b@ptized.”
These are the sweet glimpses of G0d that we see in the day to day building of relationship- the deepening of friendship and trust. These are also the things that stop you in your tracks as you are caught off guard. You say outloud…yes outloud…”WHAT DID YOU SAY?” knowing your friend doesn’t understand a word of English. Then your brain kicks in and you are able to ask the same question in her language, “Mun ko?” You realize G0d is at work in the deep quiet places of a person’s heart, mind, and spirit. You feel very inadequate to respond and suddenly a flood of humility washes over you as you realize the bigness of your G0d and His f@ithfulness to draw all people to Himself.
The next day our friend did come to our house and she brought 3 of her children and a young boy who lives in their compound. We had a sweet time of w0rship…singing songs of f@ith, dancing with joy to celebrate the truths of these songs, sharing a meal of spaghetti, and listening to a story from God’s Word.
It was our first time to try to communicate G0d’s Word without a translator. We listened to the story of the Four friends who brought the Paralytic to Jesus for healing. Then we acted it out, and talked about what we liked about the story. Each one of us shared, and we talked about the f@ith that the friends had in J.s.s. We talked about the importance of putting our f@ith in J.s.s to take care of the needs of our friend and the health of her brother. We pr@yed together!
I love those sweet glimpses of G0d and the track stopping shocks He sends to show us His power and presence!