We like to start every morning with listening prayer. Its
simply asking God to speak to us. It’s a very simple concept and extremely Biblical but for some
reason I had never really practiced regularly it till earlier this year. If we really
want to follow Christ then we have got to be able to hear His voice telling us
where to go, right? Anyways, I was doing listening prayer with my group of
participants and they were sharing what God had said to them. Isn’t incredible
to think that God, creator of everything, would care enough to speak directly
to us? As we were wrapping up our time of sharing this awesome guy Jason spoke
up and said God had given him a vision.
In Jason’s vision there was a person, presumably dead, lying
on the ground with white birds around it, sort of pecking at the body. Now there
has to be grace in this because we are all still growing in hearing God’s voice
but this was one that left me thinking “well alright…” Jason’s vision an
interesting one but not one to be discredited.
Walking down the streets of Haiti is quiet the experience.
Its loud, cars are recklessly driving all over honking their horns erratically.
There is this nasty stuff we call “haitian juice” flowing down the road that is
unavoidable. Eventually, you’re going to step in it. The smells are horrendous
and even worse, they are the kind of smells that you can taste too. Take all
this and add many Haitian people staring and numerous shouts of “Hey you!” and
“bla” which is short for white. Its quite the adventure.
This particular afternoon we had been out in a community
praying with people and listening to their stories. It’s humbling to be among
so many people that literally have nothing yet still say that, “God will
provide.” Think about that. That can be almost the opposite of how it is in the
states. We have everything and sometimes believe that we are actually the ones that provide it…wrong! Anyways, after a blessed time spent in the community we headed home.
This walk back was different from our previous. Of course it
was noisy, hectic and stinky but as we were walking back I noticed a body
laying on the side walk. I stared in disbelief not knowing what I was actually
witnessing. As I got closer it was apparent that he was still alive but barely. We tried communicating with him but got no response. Our translators said that maybe he was crazy. We tried pouring water in
his mouth but he refused to drink.
So we prayed. We circled around him and prayed because God knows exactly
who this boy is and what is going on with him. When we stopped praying a large
amount of Haitians had gathered round us potentially putting my group in danger
so we hurried home.
It was very easy to see that a few of my team members were
in shock. This is not something that one typically experiences in their lifetime.
Many of the girls were distraught and had big ‘ol tears rolling down their
cheeks. We needed to talk about what had just happened. There were a lot of
“how” questions. “How could this happen?” “How could his family and friends not
do anything about this?” “How could people just walk past him all day?” Then it
switched to “what” questions. This hardest one was “what if that was me?” “What
if that was one of my family members?” A sense of urgency came over the group.
We’ve got to do something!
After presenting this to my leaders, they agreed that we had
to do something and a truck was sent to pick him up. He was very disoriented as
a result of being extremely malnourished. They took him to the hospital where
they hooked him up to IVs and pumped some nutrition into his body. The hospital
visit ended up being free. Next we called an orphanage that we have a great
relationship with and they said they’d take him in. Thank you Lord!
A few days later I took my team to the orphanage and there
was the purple pants boy. I sat down next to him and tried to talk with him and
comfort him but there was no reciprocation. He wouldn’t make eye contact and
was very uncomfortable with me showing him any attention. It was very obvious that
he has been neglected and probably severely abused.
I couldn’t help but sit by his side and rub his bony back. As
I sat there I just prayed love into his life and spoke truths over him. I know
he couldn’t understand me but I know that God was speaking to his heart. Maybe
for the first time in his life he felt what its like to be loved. Maybe in that
brief hour he realized that someone does care that he is alive. Maybe in those
few quiet moments he realized how much Jesus loves him.
How cool is it that earlier in the day God had given Jason what seemed to be sorta a crazy vision? He speaks to us people. Stop allowing prayer to just be this selflish one way communication. Take time being quiet and listening for his voice. In John 10:27 Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” We’ve got to get to know his voice so we know how to follow him.
Ryan
