Day 60 - Heal the Sick

Tomorrow is Friday. If you have ever been on a short-term mission trip you know that this is where the rubber meets the road. The rush of adrenalin you get when the trip starts is long gone. The excitement of ministry is waning and fatigue is sitting in fast. Well that could be the case. It normally is, however this is not a normal trip. This is a trip with a bunch of radical revivalist who spent most of the day praying for the sick in a local hospital, ministering to and feeding children in an area so poor there is very little electricity, no running water and the homes look like little huts made from metal sheets. We also had another outdoor service in this area for the people. We got back to the hotel around 10PM, just in time to go downstairs to eat. That in a nutshell was our day, but it doesn’t begin to tell all that happened, and I’m not sure I can tell it all now.
Let’s start at the hospital this afternoon. We went around 9AM to go the mart to get some souvenirs. Then we went to lunch and after lunch we went to meet the pastor whose church we were going to tonight. He met us at the local hospital. He had some connections and was able to get us in with pretty much free reign on one of the wings to go and pray for the sick. I don’t know what the other part of the hospital was like, but in this wing there were like wards. Each big room had 8 beds. They were segregated by sexes. One side of the wing was for women, and the other side was for men. The wing had no air conditioning. The rooms had a couple of floor fans and that was it. They were extremely hot, and all the men were sweating. It looked like most of the men we prayed for were postoperative. We specifically prayed against infection which seems to be a big issue based on what we saw when we prayed for people in their homes the other night. Everyone we prayed for experienced a touch from God in some way. We had one guy say that he felt cooler, (a miracle in itself in those conditions.) We saw pain decrease if not go away in a couple of cases. While I didn’t have anyone get up and leave after I had prayed, some of our team did. The women prayed for a woman who had just been admitted. I believe she was having trouble breathing. After the team prayed for her, she was completely healed and checked herself out of the Hospital and went home. Another man checked himself out after prayer, but we didn’t get a complete rundown on him. All I know was that our allotted time passed so fast. It was so much fun being able to walk in and bless someone with God’s love. His presence with us was very strong, and I felt His pleasure as we rayed for these people.
After that we went to the church where our outreach was going to take place. From there we drove probably a mile back into this section of slums. It is an area of dirt roads. There are sections with little plots of land with shacks on each plot of land. Each plot of land in surrounded by barbed wire to mark your territory. There was very little electricity and no running water. I’m sure the plumbing was an outhouse. There were so many kids. They were all dirty, and most very cute and sweet. We divided up into two groups and each went to one of the churches home groups. At the home group we were able share a testimony and call out words of knowledge and then pray for the sick. It was a lot of fun, and we saw a number of people healed of migrant headaches and other various ailments. Then the kids were fed, and were given the toys that we had brought from the states. By the time we finished there it was time to walk back for the evening service. It was on one of the dirt streets two of the girls shared and we had probably 15 pray to receive Christ. The a man that we met at the hospital shared.
When I first met Earl, I thought that he was everything that I wanted to be but was not. He is outgoing, anointed and not afraid to say anything. He has the joy of the Lord all over him, and he goes around constantly singing, “I have a good, good daddy”. I talked with him when the kids had come to the small group, and I knew that I was to connect with this man, and that I wanted him to pray an impartation over me. Well, he got up to speak, and he talked about the loveliness of God, and how good He is. He shared about how he and his wife lost their third baby, and how in the midst of that he was able to hold onto the goodness of God. Of courts this really hit home to me, with Julia’s death so close to my heart. I really connected to him, and we did get him to pray with all of us. It was great, He has a heart for Nicaragua, and he is very anointed. He preaches the Kingdom message, and that was what we talked about most. I truly believe tonight was a “god moment” for me, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds. Well it’s late and 8AM comes very early. It will be Friday, bring it on.