In missions, you generally start out with a plan.
Then, the plan gets revised, because something happens.
Then, the plan gets postponed, because someone comes for a visit.
Then, suddenly you end up enacting the plan, because whoever was coming for a visit didn´t show up.
Yeah, something like that.
I´ve been intending to update this blog for weeks. So two weeks ago, Mike dropped me off at the internet cafe for an hour. I walked up to the internet cafe, and saw a sign: "cerrado" (closed)
So instead of updating this as I intended, I ended up sitting outside in the heat for forty minutes.
And then the team came rolling in like a tornado, thirty strong. I expected that there may be some extra time, as there usually is with teams. But God thought differently. We were so busy as a team, that there was quite literally only time for eating and sleeping.
And I wouldn´t have had it any other way.
So where do I begin? Well, I forgot my notebook, because we ended up rushing to the internet cafe. And because we rushed to the internet cafe, I also didn´t get a chance to write my blog out before hand, or even upload the blogs I finished before...
And did I mention that this may be my last chance before I go off the radar for a month in Honduras?
Man has many plans, but God trumps them all. Life´s surprising that way.
So what do I say with so little time?
Well, I´ll begin by saying that our team of thirty that rolled in had no translators. The only people who spoke Spanish were more out of practice than I was. Alex, our usual translator and local guide had work the whole week. All the translators from the states also had to cancel. So here we were, thirty clueless gringos with about a hundred words of Spanish between all of us.
Sounds like the makings of a disaster, right?
Surprisingly, no.
Remember that God´s plans trump anything man plans.
This group was one of the hardest working groups I´ve had the privilege of working with.
They did everything from manual labor, to walking miles on foot, to spending hours in several villages without any translators. All without arguing and complaining. All with enthusiasm, even in the end, when getting up in the morning seemed like an impossible task.
In the villages, we visited people in their homes, going from house to house and talking with them and sharing the gospel. And oddly enough, I began to serve as the speaker for the group...
And then from speaker... I moved on to translate the greater part of a message in Spanish.
And despite the fact that I still only understood a part of what the people said, we still were able to communicate clearly.
At one house, we shared the gospel with a woman named Mirian and spoke with her a little bit about life and shared a bit of the gospel of John. At the end, we thanked her for the conversation and asked what she needed prayer for. Of course, when I asked that, I realized that I probably wouldn´t understand her request. But it came in loud and clear.
She was deported from the states about five years ago. But somehow, she left her husband and two children behind. Since then, she hasn´t seen them. The women in our group were shocked when they heard, and embraced her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as we prayed for her. When we left, she thanked us profusely. The whole visit was, in a word, beautiful.
God still provided a way for us to minister, despite the odds against us. Never bet against Him.
And now, I have to go, but please remember to pray for Mirian, that she would be able to see her family again, and that she would come to know Jesus Christ, who gives the hopeless hope. Keep praying for Mike´s family as they try to finish Sofia´s adoption. And pray also for me, as I go into Honduras, that God would help me learn the language quickly, and that I would refresh the missionaries there and share the gospel boldly.
In the name of our Lord Jesus,
- Pablo
