Answered Prayers

I love returning to the same scene a year later and analyzing how things have changed (or not changed.) I got to experience this again this morning when I had a Holy Saturday visitation with many of the women I have shared Via de Cristo experiences with. Something that happens only once a year is a wonderful milemarker in your life – that is ripe for reflection. I remember only 4 years ago – how frustrated and torn I was from constantly serving and never being fed spiritually at my old church. Everything was focused on new believers and people like me who were willing to serve got thrown into leadership roles without any support. I remember suggesting to the church leadership we should have classes for the seasoned believers to help keep us spiritually fed and being told that I was expected to have the maturity to endure such things….that all the church’s focus needed to be on the new believers.

I clearly remember asking God for help! I asked him to put mature believers in my life to help me grow and show me a new way. Looking around this morning in the beautiful faces of my answered prayers – I am so humbled by our awesome God!

To condense a 4 year journey into one sentence. It’s all about God’s love for us (period) - this is what these ladies have taught me. How can I ever thank these ladies for what they have given to me – a fresh perspective on the Lord that has forever changed me? I can’t. But it compels me to pay it forward…..
To them I say:
Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord,
I am so glad you gave.

The first time I ever heard this song by Ray Boltz – it was being sung to me by a participant at Via de Cristo the first time I served on staff. I felt totally unworthy of the song – but it certainly one of those moments on the highlight reel of my life!

Let me tell you about the second time it was song to me – when we visited our Compassion child Ada in El Salvador a few weeks ago. Ada is 14 years old. I have sponsored her for over 6 years now – she was my first Compassion kid and holds an extra special spot in my heart. When we got to the project – she and her friends at the project had prepared an elaborate song and dance show for us. They had a band comprised of some of the kids in the project and they were playing popular praise music in Spanish. The girls were singing the song….People from every nation and tongue…..from generation to generation….we worship you! Alleluia….Alleluia….for who you are…..you are good!

Well I recognized that song – even in Spanish with the band that often missed the beat because they were still learning how to play. So I started singing it in English in Ada’s ear…..next thing I know – I am being escorted up to the stage and being asked to sing it in English for everyone! This is way out of my comfort zone! But I felt a slap on my head (it had to be the Holy Spirit) and a voice telling me – “Hello – this is what you are here for! To reach out to these kids and make a difference….sing!” Ada and I were on the stage singing together about the beautiful character of God in front of her friends and teachers at the Compassion project.

Several acts later – they put 2 chairs in front of the stage and had Patrick and I sit down. Then the kids gathered around us and sang “Thank you for giving to the Lord” in English to us. They used sweeping gestures with their hands and got down on their knees at certain points - to try to emphasis special parts in the song. No pics of this performance – darn it! But it’s forever burned in my memory – I can’t possibly think of anything sweeter to happen to us! The fact that my special “Via De Cristo” song was being sung to me in El Salvador made it that much more special to me!

Our visit with Ada was AMAZING…..and to be able to spend the day and witness her strong faith in the Lord and being shown how her involvement with the Compassion project positively changed her life – was an incredibly blessing to me. God let me be part of this – and I am so thankful to him that I got to actual witness it first hand. Ada was abandoned by her mother. She lives with her Abuela (her Grandma) in a home that is in danger of falling down the mountain – with limited electricity and plumbing. Yet she has Hope…..she has dreams…..she teaches Sunday School and wants to be a journalist. She has plans to go to college. These aren’t the kind of dreams that kids in her neighborhood typically have – but Ada has them! It is a beautiful God thing called Hope….instilled in her because the Compassion project and the church that sponsored it - stepped into her life and showed her all about God’s love for her! Her hope is our answered prayers for her!
After our visit with Ada – we went on to Nicaragua and visited a boy named Moises that we sponsor from Compassion as well. Moises is a lot shyer than Ada – but Moises like Ada has hope! Moises wants to be a doctor when he grows up – a surgeon to be exact! If you ask him – he will tell you exactly how he plans to do it – too! Moises community is very, very poor. But he has the Hope that only knowing how deep God’s love for him can create. He knows with God anything is possible! Guess what? We were a part of helping him realize this. He was very excited to tell us about his testimony on how God answers prayers that he was going to give in his church that Sunday. Every year the people in his church write down a prayer that they are going to ask God to answer that year. This year – Moises’ prayer was that Patrick and I would come to Nicaragua to meet him! His pastor was right there affirming his story and just as excited about it!

In a totally unexpected twist….God used me (us) to answer Moises prayer!!!
I have to admit to you this whole thing is blowing my mind away. I’ve realized suddenly how self centered my focus has been. Did I really plan this trip to visit Moises - was it really my idea??? Or was it the Holy Spirit prompting me on behalf of Moises... and if this is true....what about the rest of my life?

The people in our lives - the way we touch each others hearts and see God - it is a huge mystery how God makes it all happen. But I pray when I become reflective again - I can at least be blessed enough to see that God is still using me to answer the prayers of others….

Just like he used the ladies of the Via De Cristo group to answer mine!

Thank you, Thank you Jesus!

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand…... Song from the Sound of Music

I woke up at 3 AM the other day with Maria on my mind. Actually – she is haunting me daily since we have returned from Nicaragua. I am overwhelmed by her courage and emotionally drained because I can’t personally help her. I am literally exhausted from it. Ever hear the saying….be careful for what you pray for?

I read a Hole in the Gospel by Rick Stearns (the leader of World Vision) before I left. He encouraged us to pray that our hearts be broken just like Jesus’ for the Impoverished children in the world. I am here to tell you – the prayer worked!

Maria is an amazing young lady that I first met last year in Nicaragua. She can’t be much older than my daughter Ashley (20) – and she is a mother of 2. Two small girls, - 4 and 2. She lives in the Limonal area of Chinandega (by the city dump.) I met her last year – and her little baby caught our attention – because she was swinging in the hammock of the feeding center amongst the smoke of the fire and the chaos of the children waiting to be feed.

Coco is the woman whose home is on the Limonal Feeding Center property. She faithfully feeds the children several times a week. Coco told me that Maria is the only woman in the neighborhood that faithfully helps her day in and day out. Other women come out when the Rotary comes in hopes of getting favors from us (you can see them in the photos of our trip)– but she pulled me aside so I would know that Maria is the only one that really helps her when there is nothing to gain.

Maria is sick. As she chopped carrots or stirred the soup pots – she would clutch over in pain. Not it a dramatic – look at me kind of fashion. As soon as the spell stopped – she would continue working. If you weren’t paying attention to her – you would never know something was going on.

Maria has blood in her urine. The doctors say she has a bad kidney infection. She needs to take strong antibiotics to get better. But Maria is nursing her baby……and the antibiotics will pass through her milk. In order to take the antibiotics – she has to stop nursing.

Easy decision in the United States– the baby is 2 years old. Stop nursing and take care of yourself. But this is the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua…..and Maria’s baby has parasites and refuses to eat solid food. She will only nurse. Maria fears if she stops nursing her baby – her baby will die.

What is a poor mother to do with so few options? Maria does the only thing she can do. She keeps nursing her baby as she keeps getting sicker. Is it a matter of who dies first? Only God knows. All I know is this sweet young lady with a huge servant’s heart – is faced with a horrible dilemma. And all I can do to help her is pray…..

It worked Jesus…..my heart is broken now.

Maria is not a unique story by any means. Each mother in the Limonal area has a heartbreaking story to tell.
But just because the sheer volume of the heartbreak is overwhelming – we can not shut down and be immune to the pain. It’s so easy for us to do…..to shut everything out and live in denial.

I am making a conscious effort this year to live in the pain, to not drown out the mother’s voices….

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Oh that is too big of a problem for me to solve on my own. All I know is I have taken that first step and allowed my heart to break for her……I will not forgot her! I will hold her hand long distance by praying for her …..and I will follow the lead of the Holy Spirit…..where ever he leads me next….

Just love them like Jesus, carry them to Him, His yoke is easy, His burden is light, You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions, Just know that He loves them and stay by their side,Love them like Jesus…………… Casting Crowns

O' Poverty....source of riches

O’ Poverty – source of riches
Jesus son of God – born in Bethlehem……Taize chant


I have had this Taize chant stuck in my head since I have returned from Nicaragua. It is a haunting chant that the monks of Taize France sing. O’ Poverty! Source of riches…..

Those words hold a truth to me about Nicaragua in ways that I think I am just beginning to grasp – and will continue to evolve the longer I work with and learn more about these beautiful people. When I attempt to tell my friends about my trip – words and pictures fail to convey the power of it. Out of my mouth come stories of what we did and what we hope to accomplish in the future……which is usually followed by the some type of accolade from the listener for what ”I am doing for Nicarguans.” I try to tell them it is I who gets far more from the experience than I will ever give. But it falls on deaf ears…..they don’t understand. They think I am just being humble.

The best way I can explain the work we do in Chinandega is that is a partnership. Each group – the International Rotarians (this is my group), the Chinandega Rotarians, and the local Chinandega community – come together with their unique talents and needs. The spirit of God blesses our union and a miracle happens – our talents and our needs blend into this beautiful symmetry and together we are able to make a change in this world and in each other. Not just the United States group infusing a change into the Nicaraguan community with our money and our sweat. Oh no! It is far greater thing than that! The Nicaraguan community infuses a change into the United States group as well. The determination and the sense of community that the Nicaraguan people have is infectious. They have a spiritual richness about them that only abject poverty can create. They are forced to trust in God to meet their physical needs on a daily basis. Words fail to convey the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in this place. I almost feel like I am cheating – getting to be amongst them – sharing in the power of the Spirit of God. It is their daily physical suffering that infuses the power of the Holy Spirit in this place – I am just a visitor with the faith of a mustard seed trying to get a piece of the action.

The United States team needs what God has blessed the Nicarguans with - spiritual richness and they need what God has blessed us with – physical richness. It's certainly not as simple as this - but it's the only way I can adequately put it into words. Working together and sharing freely with each other – what we each have been blessed with - changes all of our hearts. I like to think of it as the birth of hope. We are suddenly empowered with the belief that together we are making a difference in a seemingly hopeless situation. Lots more thoughts about this in the days to come.....