This post was authored by SueEllen Button of Summit Community church in Huntsville, Alabama. She went to Guatemala in March of 2012.
I have been having flash backs all week as I try to operate in an American Christian Private School and long to be back at a Guatemalan Public school where I had more encouragement and freedom sharing the Gospel with the students.
One of the church members at Summit asked me this past Sunday what was your favorite God moment and I immediately told her about the pastor from Lantana (Pastor Juan) praying with the blind man we went to visit. I remember when we were brought into the blind man's home along with the other ladies from church at Lantana and Pastor Juan. It was a small room and Charlene and I shared a wooden bench. Pastor Juan sat on the other side of me and to his left sat the woman from his church who had developed a relationship with this family after she saw the man and found out the difficulty the family was having because of his blindness.
I realized that us being there was no accident and that this was an intentional appointment that had been prepared by much prayer and service of a faithful believer named Veronica. During our time of sharing Pastor Juan took notes and followed along in his Bible as we shared Scripture. So thankful for our interpreter Patty who was always ready to communicate the Gospel. She was also very encouraging to those local believers who had such a heart for those who were lost around them.
During the visit I was constantly reminded that I did not even know the name of the man who lived across the street from my family. What needs does he have? Does he know Jesus?
Thankfully through our visit we were able to share the Gospel and encourage the blind man to acknowledge that God promises to forgive all of our past sins at the time of salvation. As we prayed with the family Pastor Juan left his chair and went over to the man and laid hands on him and prayed for him as the man cried and released so much hurt and self persecution.
When we left we were encouraged by this man as he told us goodbye and that although he may never see us on earth he will see us in heaven. As we walked back to the van I asked pastor Juan if he had known this man before today and he had not. This was the first time he had been able to visit him. He tries to go and pray with all of those in his community who request prayer.
One other moment was after our first home visit in the community near New Jerusalen Church. The visit did not go exactly the way we had hoped. We ended up doing 4 visits in one but figured that was the way God intended it to be (did a lot of that thinking when things didn't go exactly the way I thought they should go). After the visit we went back to the church to wait for the other teams. Because of the language barrier we really were not able to talk with the ladies from the church and because of their quietness it would have been easy to just sit and not talk and rest but decided we should share our testimonies with each other with the help of our interpreter Roger.
After Laura shared her testimony we asked the ladies from the church to share their testimony. During one of the ladies' testimonies Roger realized that he had taught her sons when they were small and had been a catalyst for drawing her back into the church. In spite of her not wanting to come to church her children and husband came without her. Just seeing the "light come on" in Roger when he remembered that time showed me the true reason we were there was to come alongside the Christians in Guatemala to share the Gospel with their neighbors and to encourage them in their own walk with the Lord.
It was so awesome to have Roger translate for me during VBS in the schools. By the end we had a rhythm to our presentation. In one class we had finished our presentation and craft and it was time to go. I kept wrapping things up but Roger kept working with the kids. I hated having to finally tell him it was time for us to go. He is a very gifted and talented young man and I greatly appreciated the sacrifices he made to be our translator for the week.
Could go on for days but will stop here. The End!
