Day
9: July 21, 2012
Wow!
What a day it has been! Okay where to start… I guess the beginning is a good
place to start.
I
started the day off bright and early by waking up around 5:30 AM in order to be
to the church by 6. I was meeting Mrs. Duffy and Anna, Paige, and Molly. Today
we had decided to go to the beach. I stopped at the bakery to buy something to
eat for lunch at the beach. It was a different one than the one I usually go to
and it doesn’t have the names of things in the window. I had a hard time trying
to tell this guy what I wanted! Thank goodness there was another man standing
right next to me that spoke English and he was able to help me out. So I made
it to the church and we were on our way to the beach. We got there without any
problems although it did take a long time to get there driving over the
mountains, although we did get to see some great views of the mountains. Once
we got to the beach we swam in the ocean, which was the perfect temperature and
had the perfect amount of waves. There was so much wildlife! The monkeys would
come right up to you and try to take your food or other things out of your bag.
The raccoons were the same way. I also got to see a neat lizard. As I was
laying on the beach of a Pacific coast ocean watching the monkeys in the trees
right above me, I thought to myself, “I wonder what all the Pittsburghers are
doing.”
Eventually
we left the beach and what should have been about three or three and half hour
drive home turned into about four and half hours. We were so lost! We got off
the highway and were unsure of which way to go. But we were pretty sure we were
going the right way because we all were recognizing some landmarks and stores.
On our way up one of the mountains we saw a fallen down billboard. When we had
seen it the first time we had mentioned it and talked about it and we realized
that we had gotten turned around and were heading in the same direction we had
just come from. But that wasn’t the
worst of it. I don’t know if we made more wrong turns or if we hadn’t
understood the directions we’d been given. But we were so lost and had no idea
where we were going! I think we asked seven different people for directions.
Finally, after all of that, we made it back to the church.
When
I was thinking about a Biblical application for the day I thought of how many
people in the world are lost the same way we were on the way home. It’s really
scary to be lost! And it’s even worse if you don’t realize you’re lost because
you end up moving backwards instead of forwards. We asked seven or eight
different people for help. And while none of them got us the whole way on their
own, each every one of them helped us take the next step in the right
direction. Evangelizing to the lost people of the world is the same way. We may
not always get to be the person that leads someone to Christ, but that doesn’t
mean that sharing the gospel is a waste. Because every time we share the gospel
we are planting a seed, helping them to get one step further to where they need
to be, giving them direction. Sharing the gospel is never a waste.
We
returned to the church and had to get right to work! Victory team was having
their farewell dinner which ran late. We had another team coming in around
midnight and another coming in tomorrow. There was a lot that had to be done in
order to prepare for them. We were finally getting ready to leave the church
and we gathered in the lobby getting the last few things done. Pastor Rene was
there too and he was complaining of being really cold. He was even shivering!
David, somebody else involved with the ministry, had warned us a couple days
ago that Pastor had been complaining that his forearm really hurt and his chest
felt tight. So when we saw him shivering like that on a night that really wasn’t
too cold we all started to get concerned. He made it to the car and that’s when
he started shaking, not just shivering. He got out of the car and he was kind
of bent over holding his head and chest. We got out of the car and laid our
hands on him and immediately began praying for him. I could feel his shaking
body under my hand and was really concerned. It got to the point that he could
hardly stand with his own strength. He was also holding his chest and moaning a
bit. He had said that he knew it was spiritual attack.
We
called the medic to come and in the meantime we all prayed together while we
waited for them. I just kept remembering my own sickness and how God had healed
me then. I sang the lyrics of Healer by Kari Jobe over and over again and
prayed for complete healing for Pastor Rene. Eventually the medics showed up in
an ambulance and took Pastor Rene into the ambulance on a stretcher to examine
him. During this time we kept praying. “Satan, you have no place in this place
or in this man’s body, in the name of Jesus Christ the son of God, I command
you to leave this place!” I prayed. Eventually the medic came out and talked to
Pastora Elena. She came over and told us, “They say that his heart is fine.
They said it is stress but we know it’s spiritual.” He had basically had an
anxiety attack. They gave Pastor some relaxers and sent him home with Pastora.
Pray for Pastor and his family but also for all of the team with Leaders for
Christ Costa Rica who are going to have a very busy and stressful week this
week. But I just keep reminding myself that Satan is a really sore loser, so if
he decided to attack our leader in such a way as he did tonight, he must really
want to stop this week from happening. I guess that means God has some really
big things planned.
Some
of the team is meeting tomorrow morning at 10 AM to pray for this week and we
will also be fasting for a period of time. Keep us in your prayers. Pray that
Satan would be too scared to set foot anywhere we are going because the power
of God is so strong within us. Pray that all of us would be protected from
spiritual attack. And pray that things would go smoothly and it would be a
stress free week!
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