Grieving, Cold Showers, & Futbol

Have you ever had a loss in your life and held it inside of you, and never gave yourself the time to grieve it?  Well, something amazing happened last week that illuminated the healing process from the losses, pains, failures, etc. that we all have faced in our lives.

As a group, we were hosting a worship team and hiked up a mountain with them to meet some local pastors to pray and worship God through word, song, and dance.  After a great time of praise, one of the pastors stated that one member of his church had died, and therefore requested our presence at their church to meet and pray for his family.

When we hiked back down the mountain and walked into the church (which was more like a project house with a thin tin roof and partially exposed to the outside), we found the family members at the center of the house, and we next started to pray for them.  As we individually started to pray for them, everyone in the room started to pray at the same time, and so we all joined in and did the same.  With not much time, tears of grief poured freely from the family members, and shouts to The Lord requesting His comfort were made.  This was true mourning, and it was expressed freely.

All the while, when we came to give them the gift of prayer and encouragement, they were giving us a much larger gift, the gift of learning how to grieve.  And out of their thankfulness for the life of the one they lost, they praised The Lord and surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus Christ – His comforting and saving grace.

How many of us have yet to grieve something in our lives that we are holding onto?

It reminds me of a missionary hero of mine named John G. Paton that suffered the tragic loss of his wife and child after arriving on an island of people who have never heard of Jesus before.  In all of this tragedy, his courage came from his confidence in the sovereignty of God controlling all adversities, here are his words over his wife’s and his child’s grave:

“Feeling immovably assured that my God and Father was too wise and loving to err in anything that he does or permits, I looked up to the Lord for help, and struggled on in His work.”  -John G. Paton

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  -Romans 8:18

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So, for over the last two months, I have taken cold showers almost every day!  For some reason, this verse popped in my head – “…Oh how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”…but little do you know that it’s the cold showers that give them that extra boost of confidence for missionaries to share such good news!  The second half of that is not true because it is not in the bible and it is not what compels us to share, but it sure does get us moving!  Quite frankly, I don’t think you can ever get used to taking cold showers; you just have to go in head first!!

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In previous blogs, I introduced and have been talking about our friends, “The Shoe Shine Boys”.  Remember, the six of these boys live apart from their families, and live with each other, and they come to the market every day to shine shoes.  They are some of the poor in our midst.  O, how The Father wants to stamp Jesus on their hearts!  So, there are a total of six of them that we have become friends with, and we are starting to build an even deeper friendship, through a sports ministry where we play “futbol” (this means soccer in Spanish).

As Henri and I were meeting with them on the streets one day, we set up a time every week where we play soccer to build our relationship with them, walking in their midst, enjoying them, ministering in the example of Christ – in not only seeing them, but being with them.

It has been so much fun and we are excited to see what The Father has in store for them, in His timing – which we all partake in (INCLUDING YOU THROUGH YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS!) to write the eternal fame of Jesus Christ on their hearts!  Please keep praying for these boys – that God would continue to open their hearts to the Gospel, and for us to trust in The Lord of the harvest to save His children!

And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, THE POOR HAVE GOOD NEWS PREACHED TO THEM.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  -Luke 7:22-23

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ALSO, CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO (link below) OF MY FRIEND HENRY WHO IS FROM HONDURAS, THE LORD IS CHANGING HIM AND US, AND HERE IS HIS VIDEO OF THANKSGIVING!  ENJOY!!

My Friend Henry