The day our team showed up to Gracie’s, so did two other girls. One was a thirty year old mom who was pregnant with her father’s baby, and the other was her ten year old daughter (also her father’s child.) As I started to talk to her I found out she didn’t want the baby and that she felt hopeless. She never smiled or engaged in conversation. About two weeks later, she woke up in the morning bleeding. They thought she was having a miscarriage. She was devastated because she realized she had actually grown to love her baby. We all laid hands on her and prayed for her and the baby and later that night a teammate and I read her scripture. A few days later we found out that there was no longer a baby. The amazing part of the story is that in the moment she thought she was losing her baby, she gave her life to the Lord. It was so easy to see the purpose of this trial in this woman’s life. Though we all thought she had lost her baby, there was so much joy in the situation because she ended up accepting Jesus. Sometimes we get so focused on what we want and when we want it that we forget the plans that God has for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Who knows if she would have ever been saved if it wasn’t for this trial.
Then, yesterday I got home from the doctor after finding out I had Dengue and Chikungunya and she ran up to me to ask how I was doing. She told me she had been praying for me and was so glad that I was better. The amazing thing to me was the change in events within a few days. Sunday I was praying desperately for her baby and, when Thursday came around, she had accepted God and was praying just as hard for me. What a great example of how telling one person the gospel can spread God’s kingdom to this Earth. She now has learned the power of prayer and can take it with her wherever she goes. It goes to show the power of community when it comes to being Christians and using it to pray over each other and build each other up.
