Rewind back to over two years ago. I was preparing to move to Haiti. A close family friend/pastor spoke some prophetic words over me, as did my sister. The Lord told them that when I went to Haiti, there would be healing. I was told that God wanted me to go to Haiti expecting healing instead of asking for it.
During my past two years in Haiti, I have prayed for many people and I've seen very little obvious results from those prayers. I've prayed for pain and sickness. I've prayed for children with AIDS. I've prayed for legs to grow out. I've prayed for crippled body parts. I've laid hands on the dead and prayed for them to be raised up again. In all of those prayers, I saw ONE healed back. It was incredible that God healed a man's back after I prayed, but I've wanted more. Just one is not enough. God always does something when we pray, but it has not looked like what I expected. I've been frustrated to say the least.
I also deal with the frustrations of how I am treated here in Gonaives on a daily basis. I have written about the struggles of being a white person here. I've explained how incredibly difficult it is to walk home from Jubilee. I am made fun of, harassed, begged for money, and hit on. I often ask for patience and for the presence of God to rest upon me and for His light to be seen, but on most days, by the time I get home I'm tired, frustrated, and grumpy.
On an average day, the walk home from school is my least favorite part of the day. Not because I don't like walking, but because of the way I am treated. Friday, I was in a good mood all day and God had been blessing me with supernatural amounts of patience. So, I decided to do something different. Instead of letting myself get hurt by people or frustrated, I decided that when people yelled to me or said things about me, I would stop and talk to each them.
I passed by dozens of people on the street yelling at me and asking for things. For some people I just said a simple, "Bonswa" and for others I stopped and had conversations. One man obnoxiously yelled to me from the opposite side of the road, "Hey white girl! Come talk to me!" I said, "Bonswa, how are you?" He was taken aback. I crossed the road to speak to him and he began telling me how nice it was for me to talk to him. He thanked me for not embarrassing him by walking on past. He said that he liked the way I interacted, and he complimented my Creole. He asked if it was ok for him to greet me if we pass in the street again. He did NOT hit on me, make sexual comments, tell me I was pretty, or ask for my phone number. It was a BEAUTIFUL encounter.
I had several other great conversations as I walked. By the time that I arrived at the town square, I had a spring in my step. In the square is a huge Catholic church.
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| This is the square in Gonaives. You can see the huge A frame church on the right. (picture taken from Google since I didn't have a picture of it) it is not in this picture, but usually, this area is filled with people. |
As always, there were four old beggar ladies sitting along the fence in front of the church. I knew they were going to beg from me if I walked by. I thought to myself, "I've had a great walk so far. I don't want to ruin it now." I considered crossing the street before I passed them in order to avoid their begging (I'm not always a good person). You see, any time that I tell someone I'm not going to give them anything, they get angry. They yell at me and tell me that I'm selfish (among other things). I really just wanted to avoid all of that.
Instead, I decided to walk past them. As expected, they held out their hands to beg. I stopped in front of them and kindly said, "I'm not going to give you money, but I'd love to just talk to you if you would like." Their faces lit up. They all four jumped up off the ground and gave me huge toothless smiles. The were skin and bones. When I asked them how they were doing, they responded, "Not good at all. We got really muddy and wet last night in the hurricane." I said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did the rain come in your house?" The all shook their heads and said, "No, we don't have houses. We live under a tree. We are homeless." I was floored. I didn't even know what to say. They only thing I could think of was, "Can I pray for you?"
I'm glad that was the only thing I could think to say because their response was so surprising. "YES! Please pray for us!" they excitedly said. However, the woman closest to my left said, "Well, before you can pray, what church do you go to?" I told her, "Well, I go to different places and sometimes I just worship God at my house instead of in a church." She didn't seem pleased with that answer and she cut me off before I could even finish speaking. "So, you don't go to this Catholic church," she asked me motioning towards the church behind her. "No, I don't." I responded. She sat down and said, "Oh. Well, then I don't want you to pray for me."
I smiled at her and then gently said, "That's no problem, madame. However, I believe that it does not matter what church we go to. If we are all in agreement that we love God, if we all worship him, and we all pray to him, I believe that we we can all pray together." The three women standing next to me all nodded their heads in agreement and said, "AMEN!" She still did not want prayer. So, I put my arm around the three woman still standing and I began to pray. Instantly as I started praying, the woman who had said she didn't want prayer stood up. She came beside me and put her arm around me. I knew in that moment that God was doing something important there. He was moving. He was present and He had planned that meeting. We began to pray together right there in the middle of the busiest part of the city.
After praying a short prayer of blessing and provision for the women, people were starring at me as they passed by. I realized that I already looked like a crazy person. I figured that I might as well make it worthwhile and keep praying! By looking at skinny fragile bodies, I realized I was about to ask a redundant question: Do any of you have pain or sickness that I can pray for specifically?
Immediately, they were all speaking at once. I could barely understand what they were saying, but I could tell they most definitely wanted and needed more prayer. One woman literally said, "My entire body hurts. Pray for everything in my body. It is all bad." I started with the woman to my left (the one who originally didn't want prayer at all). "Pray for my son," she said, "He's wicked. He steals and lies. He has murdered people and he has raped women. He is an embarrassment to me and I don't know what to do." Before praying, I warned them that I don't often pray in Creole since it is not the language of my heart. They didn't mind and they just urged me to pray. I prayed a prayer of life and love over her. I asked God for her son to see his sin and turn to God. After praying for her son, I prayed for various parts of her body that were in pain.
When I finished praying for her, I realized that somehow the small group of four people had suddenly multiplied. People were slowly starting to crowd around me. Some were just whispering and asking, "What is that white girl doing??" As I prayed, I heard shouts of "Amen! Thank you, Jesus!" coming from different places in the crowd. When I finished praying for the four original women, people started to argue and shove their way towards me to get prayer. They were literally, arguing about who was there first. It was insane. NEVER has that happened to me before. Usually, people yell at me and tell me I'm selfish. I've been called Satan and I've been told to leave the country. But, this time, they were fighting to receive prayer from me. I tried not to laugh as I told them, "Don't worry! I have lots of time. I will stay as long as it takes to pray for each of you."
I cannot tell you how many people I prayed for. There were at least 15 people that approached me for prayer. I was laying hands on crippled arms and legs. I was laying hands on blind eyes. I was laying hands on bad backs. I laid hands on hurting heads, arthritic hands, chest pain, rashes and various other pains in the body. It was incredible. I stopped and warned the people multiple times that I might not be praying very well in Creole, but I know that God knows in my heart what I mean to say. Eventually after about 20 minutes of praying on the street corner, the crowd thinned and I was able to continue home. As soon as I was home, I was overwhelmed with tears of joy. All that had happened because I took the time to say good afternoon to some outcasts. All that had happened because of five simple words.
Later that night, I shared my story with everyone over dinner. Everyone was blown away by what I described. But, Keziah and Grace's response affected me the most. They told me, "We prayed for you this morning. We prayed that God would show you something today. We prayed that He would give you a visible sign of the work you are doing here in Haiti. We prayed that you would see things to encourage you and help you understand the impact that you are making here." I was overwhelmed by joy and I just wept. God's promise to me really was true after all. Great things are only just beginning to happen. I just have to continue being patient with God and with everyone around me.
Acts 3:2-10
Now a man who was lame from birthwas being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
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