Monday July 12, 2010
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| Handing out tracts |
Today was a stretching day for me. We got up this morning at 7am had breakfast on the deck and then left for the church. We split up into four teams with some nationals and went door to door all day praying for people and handing out tracts. Ashley, Miles and I were in a group with Mark Novem. We walked around the villages behind New Life AG and down by the houses that are right on the ocean handing out tracts and inviting people to New Life.
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| Lady in green healed of asthma |
There is something here that they call the American or the White factor. People are more apt to listen to us and hear what we have to say as opposed to when the nationals go around and talk to people. It was awesome that people wanted to listen to us and ask us questions. We had three really awesome encounters today. The first was for a woman by the name of Maria Suzanna. We had met her Sunday after church. She had slipped into service a little bit late that day, but after service, Ashley Miles and I all had a chance to pray for her and for healing in her body. She had suffered a stroke and had lost most of her vision. She also had really bad asthma. Another thing that she wanted prayer for was her daughter who is an unbeliever. Through this I still thank God that even though there is a language barrier here in Bohol, that we are still able to somewhat understand enough to be able to minister and pray for people. Today without knowing where we were or what house we were at, stopped at her house. The one thing on this trip that is hard on others and me is that we do not get follow up on what we do or whom we pray for, but today we did. Maria explained to us that after we prayed for her on Sunday after church that she went home and we able to breath freely and that the cough that she had subsided and she had so much relief! She had been praying for years that she would be able to breath normally, and standing there getting to here this from her was incredible and it was evident that God touched her! We prayed with her again that God would receive all of the glory and the awesome thing was that her daughter was a witness to what went on that day and I hope and pray that she might come to have a relationship with Him!
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| Man with wound |
Another encounter that we had was with a man who lived behind the one of the Catholic cathedrals in very unsanitary conditions. We met him as we were walking back to New Life because we were done doing ministry for the day and it was time for dinner, but God said not yet. This man came hobbling over to us asking for 10 pesos so that he could get some medicine or as we found out he actually wanted to buy alcohol to numb the pain that he was in. As he came closer to us, we could see that his eyes and obviously his vision was horribly messed us, but also on his leg was a large open pussing and oozing wound. As we talked to him, we could tell that he had some psychological problems and drunk. The wound that he had was there for a little over a month and was growing larger and larger. We asked him if we could pray for him and he said yes. Our whole team showed up and we all laid hands on him and prayed for healing to come to this man and freedom from needing to drink. In short, healing never came, but we had the chance to take him to a local medical center and we all paid for him to get his leg cleaned out and bandaged up. We prayed for him on last time and let him be on his way. God did not move in the way of a healing possibly because if the man was healed, I really doubt that the glory would have gone to God. I also don’t think that the man would have changed his life around and seen that God renewed him. I cannot say though why there was not healing, but I am thankful that we were able to pray for him and get him some medical attention. We were able to show love to him even though he may have not been able to understand it.
The last encounter that we had was impactful was with a woman who we were able to talk to, share the love and life of Christ with, and then pray for. We showed up on her porch and she invited us to sit after asking us what we wanted with her and why we were coming. She wanted to know if it had to do with religion and was a bit hesitant, but let us sit. She was Catholic and we just asked her questions about what she believed about Jesus and where she thought that she was going when she died. We sat and talked and each of us were able to share what God had done in our lives, what it means to have a relationship with Christ and also that we knew without a doubt that we know where we are going when we die. It was a really great time to sit with her and pour some truth into her life!
