Over my life as a Christian, I have learned a lot about God. Often I realize in retrospect something He has taught me. I listen attentively to sermons to glean what I can, I seek out a deeper understanding through my own studies. I pray for discernment and understanding. However, it is rare that I am aware of being in the midst of being actively taught something by the Lord.
I recently attended the New Wineskins Mission Conference. I attended two break out sessions on healing. I believe miraculous healing through prayer can happen. In fact, I have received healing twice, once a physical healing and the other healing of a deep, long standing emotional wound. As I sat in the sessions, I decided I wanted to learn more about healing and, even perhaps, how to be an instrument of God’s healing. So, I bought 4 books on the subject. As I flew back to Honduras, I thought maybe I should start with myself. I have carpal tunnel in both my wrists and thumbs. (Side note to all you avid thumb texters…you will be here one day. As I told a doctor once, I am like a cat – clever but ineffective since I have no use of my opposable thumbs) I prayed with complete faith and belief for healing.
Here is what happened. First of all, the Lord taught me about daily bread. “Give us this day our daily bread” is not just about bread! This is something the Hondurans know very well. As Angel says, “Yesterday is gone, we don’t know if there will be a tomorrow, all we have is today. Live today as though it is your last.” Anyone in recovery understands this concept as well. “One day at a time.” Instead of waiting for a dramatic healing event, I understood the Lord was teaching me to pray for healing one day at a time. All I need is for my hands to be pain-free today. “As Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matt.6:34)So I start each day with a prayer, please heal my hands for today. Tomorrow is another day.
After several days, I realized He was teaching something else. Throughout each day I will have moments when I realized my hands don’t hurt. I say a quick prayer of thanks. Occasionally, my thumb or my wrist will start hurting, sometimes in the middle of the night. I say a quick prayer asking for healing. Within a minute or two the pain subsides. I was pondering this and reflected on the time He healed me physically. I had a bad case of tendonitis in both Achilles tendons. I could hardly walk. I had a huge knot on each tendon. I had just started my ministry here and worried it would severely impact my ability to fulfill my responsibilities. Two orthopedic doctors had examined them and both had said there was nothing to be done. One day, I met an extraordinarily spiritual woman. Suzy introduced her as Sister Lupita, a prophet. I asked her to pray for my ankles, which she did. That afternoon, the knots were gone and I was painfree. It was a miracle! Dr. Jim, one of the orthopedic doctors who had examined me, was amazed that my tendons were totally healed. This was over 8 years ago and I haven’t had a twinge since. I suddenly realized that I rarely think about them or what God did for me. Sometimes I will tell the story to illustrate our miraculous Lord, but mostly I just thoughtlessly enjoy healthy tendons.
This time, with my hands, the Lord didn’t give me a one and done miraculous healing. Instead He helps me one day at a time. This is my lesson – to depend on God when I have needs, to lean on Him in times of trouble, to be thankful at all times for all things, and to walk through this life hand in hand, day by day with Him.
I don’t know how my hands will feel tomorrow but today, despite hours of painting which should have left me writing in pain, today my hands don’t hurt. I talk to God all day, asking for help and thanking Him for His grace and mercy. I think I like it this way best. (By the way, I haven’t opened the books yet!) So pray with me, “Lord, give us this day our daily bread”…whatever that may be for you and take His hand today.
I have a combo team in house. Part of the team is a medical brigade and part is a construction team. Yesterday the construction team set off to a rural, mountain site to build a house in a day. We have finally gotten rain, thanks be to God, which made the dirt road leading to the site a muddy road. The truck carrying all the wood and supplies got stuck. Finally, it made it to the site. The team had just started unloading when a man showed up and announced that HE, not our beneficiary, owned the tiny plot of land. We can’t settle property disputes in the moment so the team had to leave. The wood truck got stuck in the mud again and almost slid off a small ledge. So, now what? We have wood for a house and team to build it but no beneficiary. Fortunately, my assistant, Edson, is on the ball. He had already begun scoping out beneficiaries for the houses we will build in October.
Meanwhile, a woman in Flor named Felicity, was reeling from the day before. Her daughter had been mugged. In the middle of the night, the heavy rain was too much for her fragile, makeshift roof. It collapsed. Felicity was relieved they had survived the disaster but at a complete loss. Everything she had was gone. They literally had no roof over their heads. She does the only thing she can do. She begins to pray, beseeching the Lord to intervene, to somehow provide shelter for her and her daughter. Please, Lord, help us.
Then the wood truck and the team showed up. The team jumped out of the van and began unloading the wood. Edson explained to Felicity that, if it is OK with her (!) the team would build her house right then and there. Just a few hours later, Felicity and her daughter had a new, waterproof,strong house, built to last!
During the house blessing, Felicity shared how overwhelmed she was that the Lord had heard her prayer and answered it..immediately. Her daughter cried. The team was equally overwhelmed to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a real, bona fide miracle for this faithful woman and her daughter.
So, which was it? A mess or a miracle? The day sure started as a mess but the Lord has a way of making a mess into a miracle.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
In the US, when you hear “s/he stepped up” to accomplish something or help out, it connotes a bit of a heroic effort. One steps up in a situation where everyone else is stymied or it is a task no one wants to do or the task is outside of the person’s responsibility. It is a good thing.
I see people stepping up all the time here. Last month, the Lord showed me a little girl who desperately needed a wheelchair. On a Tuesday, I texted my friend, Kathy, my go-to person when we need a wheelchair, and asked her if she could find a child’s wheelchair and send it with the team coming the following Saturday. Within 2 hours I had a reply, “We’ve got a one!” She collected the wheelchair and then delivered it to the team, a couple of hours away, so they could bring it down. Lots of people in South Carolina stepped up to help a little girl they didn’t know.
A couple of weeks ago, a 5-year-old girl in our school in Flor told our psychologist that her step-father was abusing her and that he had also thrown her 7-month-old brother on the floor. By that afternoon, they and their 2-year-old brother were in our Children’s Home, with a caretaker hired to care for them. There were no discussions about capacity, about affordability in adding 3 children and a caretaker to the already stretched budget. The staff at the school and Children’s Home stepped up to save these children from further abuse. Edgar, 8, stepped up and took the 2 year old under his wing, teaching him how to say grace at dinnertime!
Last Friday I got a call in the late afternoon. “There is a big fire behind the church. We are evacuating all the children. Can they come to Casa LAMB?” We didn’t have a team that week and Gloria and Dulce had spent the entire week cleaning every inch of Casa LAMB, even scrubbing the wall behind the stove! When they heard the news, they stepped up. They knew that all their work would be undone in minutes, yet with big smiles, they immediately began preparing the house to receive 42 children and 8 adults. They graciously oriented the Children’s Home cooks to the kitchen and announced they would be back Saturday morning, their day off, to redo all the work they had already done.
On Saturday, I went to Mengui’s house. Mengui and his wife, Damariz, are the house parents for the adolescent boys at the Children’s Home. They built a house neighboring our property. Marvin, one of our boys, had had difficulties and is in a wonderful program called, “Teen Challenge.” Marvin and a mentor came to spend the weekend with “family.” Marvin doesn’t have any viable family – biological family. But he has a large and loving spiritual family. Mengui and Damariz hugged him and told him they are his parents now. This is not part of their job description. They stepped up and stepped in to love a child who needs it so very much. Several of the adolescent boys were there as well as Mario, our grounds supervisor. We were all there to support, encourage, and love Marvin. We celebrated the changes in Marvin that he has prayed for and wept with him as he told us of his new, deeper relationship with Jesus.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
While I was there, I noticed a big cart in Mengui’s living room. “What is that?” It is a bicycle with a food cart attached to it. Mengui and Damariz have started a neighborhood worship community in their home. Many of the members are single mothers who have no work. (Unemployment in Honduras is 50+%) The Lord told Mengui to help them. So, he took out a loan to buy this contraption and they are preparing to start a business together cooking and selling Chinese food! Damariz is a cook at the Children’s Home so is very experienced in cooking in large quantities. They both have the reputation of being excellent cooks! They, the women, and Carlos, one of our boys who has graduated from the program, will run the business. Carlos, also unable to find work, dreams of being a chef.
Carlos, future chef!
Why all this stepping up? Because we follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Because Jesus calls us to step up when we see people in need. But the real reason is because we are family. And that is a very good thing.
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. – Galatians 6:10
The other day I was walking across the campus at the Children’s Home on an absolutely gorgeous day. The cloudless sky was a bright, deep blue. It was warm with a gentle breeze, causing the pine trees to dance lightly with the sky. The air was sweet with the scent of pine needles. I thought, “this must be what heaven is like.” I was reminded of a joke told by one of my clergy friends. He would say, “If you don’t like the smell of incense, you won’t like heaven!” As I walked along I thought, I bet the incense in heaven is not clouds of smoke billowing out of a censer like at church. Instead, I imagine it is like the pine straw, occasionally wafting up its sweet aroma as a surprise grace note to passersby.
Today, during my devotional, I read, “From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 1:11 I doubt heaven is covered with pine straw and we don’t sacrifice animals on the altar anymore so what is this incense that we should be offering up to the Lord of hosts? Several weeks ago, for Epiphany Sunday, we planned on giving food baskets to 3 local families in thanksgiving for the gifts of the 3 kings. I was in PriceSmart buying the food when I was suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. I knew He was saying, “Yes, this is how I want the children to celebrate Epiphany.” After blessing the food during the church service, we all set off down the hill to deliver the first basket to the family at the gate. The basket started out very heavy but within a few steps, it was almost empty because many children wanted to help carry the food. We were met at the house by the gate by Kimberly, a young pregnant woman. Her face was wreathed in smiles as she accepted the basket, full of nutritious food, milk, and some cookies, for the family. We went to the second house just up the dirt road from the Children’s Home. The bigger boys took the food into the kitchen. There was no food in the house. Dona Reyna, the mom, joined us in prayer and then prayed herself, thanking God for this miracle. Although we had planned this, to her it was like manna from heaven. One minute her family has no food, suddenly they have a basketful! I think at that moment, a sweet aroma wafted up to heaven. Our offering of incense to the Lord in the form of food for His children.
In January a medical brigade came and we held a clinic in a rural church. A mother brought her severely disabled 5-year-old son. His muscles are so week and flaccid, he can’t even hold his head up. The mom carries him everywhere. The team left money to buy a stroller for him. Edson and I delivered the stroller to their home, a long walk down a treacherous dirt road. The mom was thrilled with the stroller and immediately rolled him up and down the length of the porch. Then she smiled and thanked God for the stroller. The incense of her gratitude rises to heaven and God smiles. Most of our children at the Children’s Home have sponsors, or “madrinas and padrinos” (Godparents.) Many of them have established relationships with the children and communicate with them regularly. It is a wonderful thing to see a child’s eyes light up when they hear from their madrina or padrino. It is also true that some of our children either don’t have a sponsor or don’t have any contact with their sponsor. They are all very gracious and are happy when another child receives a gift, card, or visit from their Godparents. Not long ago I asked one girl what she would like from her madrina who was coming soon. After the long wish list from her friend, Genesis (the older one,) who does not have an active madrina, looked at me and said forlornly, “I would like some skates.” Her little face pierced my heart and I determined that she would get skates. I reached out to the other girl’s madrina and asked her if she would add some skates to the list. The look of pure joy on Genesis’ face when we presented her the skates was priceless! Sweet, sweet aroma! Later on that afternoon, we saw many other children helping her learn to skate and learning to skate themselves as she happily shared her new skates (and the only skates at the Children’s Home!) with anyone who wanted to try. The generosity that comes so naturally to the children must lift up billows of incense! (Oh, and now Genesis has her own madrina! Love sends more incense heavenward…)
Our latest team, another medical brigade, went to Col. Emanuel, an impoverished village behind the city dump. We saw a young man and his little brother. We learned that 22 year old, Raul, is head of household for his 4 siblings. His 4 yr. old brother, Sem, had a serious case of asthma. Dr. Ann brought them into the pharmacy to nebulize Sem. Raul was so sweet, so loving, so dear. Sem was adorable. Sem sat on Raul’s lap and they sang little praise songs during his treatment. I learned that Raul lost his job several months ago. “How do you buy food?” I asked. Raul shrugged and said, “We trust in God.” We gave him all of our leftover food and some money. At first he refused the money but we insisted. He was so very thankful. Raul embodies grace as he cares for his siblings and puts all his trust in God. Daily incense offered up to his faithful Savior.
There is a Spanish praise song that I love dearly. It is titled, Perfume a Tus Pies. (Perfume at Your Feet.) The lyrics lead up to “I want my life to be like perfume at your feet.” I believe the incense we lift up, becoming perfume at the feet of the Lord, is the way we live our lives. It is our actions of love and gratitude, trust and hope, that is the pure offering that makes His name great among all nations.
Every now and then I see a post on
Facebook ominously declaring that we are in the end times. My reaction is “Of course we are. We’ve been in the end times since the moment
Jesus ascended.” However, our personal “end time” could come at any
moment. A comet could come crashing down
down right now and we’d all be in line at the Pearly Gates. Jesus
says:
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your
Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had
known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and
would not have let his house be broken into. So you also
must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you
do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:42-44)
Whether it is the END TIME or our
personal end time, the message is clear: be ready. What do we
do to be ready?Personally, one thing I
do is say the prayer of confession before takeoff and landing every time I
fly…just in case!
There are two reasons to be
ready.One is to avoid hellfire and
damnation.The other is to live into the
promise that is Christ Jesus — eternal life in His presence.
After almost 8 years in Honduras. what
I have learned is that being ready is not saying a particular prayer or going
to church every Sunday.Being ready is
about how you live your life every day. Soon after I moved to Honduras, I asked a Honduran pastor, “How is it
that the poor who suffer so much, with no end in sight, have such a profound
faith?”He answered me immediately,
“It’s because we set our sights on the next life.”I realized, despite my faith, I and many
Americans set our sights on this life. Our measures of success and security are job titles, the neighborhood we
live in, the car we drive, our school, the size of our investment portfolio… But,
when you set your sights on the next life, everything
changes.
Hondurans know that they are totally dependent on God.In our independent, self-sufficient, do-it-yourself
culture, does that make you feel a little itchy?The Hondurans give everything over to
God.The country is one of the poorest
in the western hemisphere and the government corruption is mind boggling.If you ask a Honduran how those conditions
might change, they smile and shrug, “God knows.”It is not fatalism, or complacency, it is
trust. When they talk about a future event, even meeting for lunch the next
day, they say, “Si Dios permite!”If God
permits!And as far as I can tell, they
rarely try to do God’s job for Him.Have
you ever done that?“Don’t worry, God, I
got this!I’ll let you know if I need
help!” Or, do you ever lay out the solution for Him?“Dear Lord, here is the situation so please
first do this, then this… or…you could do that…either way works for me. Amen.” (Personally, I hope God has a sense of humor!)
The Hondurans walk in the
Spirit.And they want you to join them.Last year during Holy Week, Dony, a staff
member, received tragic news.His father
had been murdered for no apparent reason. The morning after the wake, Suzy, our founder, and I were in my car on
the main street waiting for the funeral procession to start. Dony came
over and leaned into the car to talk. Suddenly an older man, slightly
drunk and reeking of alcohol, came up. He tearfully told us his
story. He has no family, his mother abandoned him when he was young.
He thinks God might love him but he
isn’t sure. Sometimes he wants to “leave this world…” but he is
afraid of death.He is even more afraid
of not being loved. Dony, on his way to his father’s funeral, began sharing the
Good News with this man, assuring him that Jesus loves him and will never leave
him. At the worst moment in his life, Dony was evangelizing.He’s ready.
Hondurans help people who
need help.If you are trying to back out
of a parking spot or parallel park, a man (or boy) is always there to help guide
you.Not for a tip, it’s just what they
do.I can’t carry anything around the
Children’s Home for more than about 3 steps. Someone, even our smallest children, will rush up to help.
Soon after I got to Honduras, I
impetuously set off with a car full of food to give to the family of a young
woman who worked for us.We drove 3
hours and stopped at a restaurant.It
was there I learned that the family lived in some remote area where “taxis
couldn’t go.” Well, I certainly didn’t want to go, at least not in a car full
of women.So I walked outside onto the
dirt road to look for help. We were right next to a gun store so, not knowing
what else to do, I started explaining my predicament, in fractured Spanish, to
the heavily armed guard.(Why did I think
that would help?)Well, the woman behind
the counter heard and rushed over, dialing her phone.“I know someone who can help you!”10 minutes later a young man named Israel (!) roared up in a pick up truck.He
cheerfully loaded all the food, hundreds of pounds of it, into the truck and
off we went.We drove for an hour and a
half!All the while he was smiling and
chatting with me.He knew a little
English and I knew a little Spanish. When we arrived, we discovered the house was deep in a ravine.No problem! Israel loaded the food on his
back and ran up and down the treacherous path until all the food had been
delivered.As we set off back to the
village, I was so grateful for his help. I looked at him and said, “Tu eres mi salva vida!”(you are my life saver)He looked puzzled for a second, then smiled
and nodded.He dropped us off at my car
and drove off with a wave.The woman in
the gun store called Israel and he came — because someone needed food and they
are always ready to help. (By the way, it wasn’t until I was back in Tegucigalpa
that I realized Salva Vida is the name of their beer.It was like I had told him, “You are my
Budweiser!”)
Eva
Hondurans are clear about from whom
all blessings flow.The last team of
2018 came at the end of October.In
addition to all the other usual activities, they decided they wanted to build a
house in a day for Ernestina, a tiny, homeless, elderly woman in San Buenaventura.The mayor had given her a minuscule bit of
land way down a dirt road in the mountains behind the Children’s Home.The only way to get the materials to the site was to carry them down and
back up a ravine.I was standing in the
woods monitoring the progress when another woman appeared, arms full of wood
that she had gathered for her wood burning stove.Eva, too, is impoverished but slightly better
off than Ernestina.She put down her
machete and wood and smiled broadly at me. “I am so thankful the Lord is helping Ernestina!Thank you letting Him use you to bring this miracle
to her.”Eva knows where that house came from. We were thankful to be part of Ernestina’s miracle.
The team realized Ernestina didn’t have a mattress so they gave me the money to buy her one.I asked Angel, our singing construction worker, if he could help.No problem!I gave him the money and the next day, he recruited a friend with a pickup truck.They went into town, bought the mattress, and then hauled the mattress and box springs to Ernestina’s new house.Again, because that is what they do.If they can help, they do…with a smile.
Hondurans live lives of hope.Jimmy came to us, broken and malnourished,
at 3.One day I saw him at our school
where he does volunteer work. He is 19
now.He was doing his university
homework, playing very complex classical music on his guitar.His fingers were flying over the strings as
he changed chords and picked a sophisticated pattern.I asked him how growing up at the Children’s
Home changed his life.“Suzy came and
gave us the possibility to dream and the possibility of having a better
life.There is a lot of Christian
influence at the Children’s Home. They teach us that our lives have a lot of
value.It changed the way I dream.My hope for the future is more than a degree
from university. More than that, it is to influence society positively. More
than changing my life, it is changing
the lives of others in a positive way.I
want to give a future to kids who don’t have one now.”Through LAMB God has given Jimmy hope…and now he plans
to share that hope with others.
70% of Hondurans live below the
poverty line. 40% live on less than $2 a
day. Unemployment is over 50%. The
government is so corrupt it makes your teeth hurt. There is no end in sight for the poor in
Honduras. And yet, they are always
joyful, ready with a smile, eager to help, full of hope and focused on the Risen Lord. They know this life is less than a blink of
an eye in the context of eternity but the next life is forever. They are
ready.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be ready…for a
life filled with joy!
