Mountains Are Still Being Moved

Hi everyone! I have spent a lot of time dwelling on how to draft this post. I recently spent 2 weeks in Guatemala with a team of 15 other high school girls from all over the United States. We were met with everything under the sun throughout our mission, from E. Coli and salmonella, to the undeniable touch of God on every heart we encountered. It seems near impossible to put all that I learned and saw into words, but I know even my most insufficient attempt is better than not sharing at all.

Having been to Guatemala for a week over spring break, I had mountain high expectations for all the ways I would see God and for the reassurance of my call back. I imagined all of the ways I was going to change lives, and how God would work through me. The ironic part is the first thing I realized is that I would be doing none of that, but instead I would just be a vessel for the work God was already doing. I was not the beginning of the work there, but a microscopic piece in His enormous jigsaw puzzle of a plan. Guatemala taught me more than I could ever imagine pouring out to the people there, and I saw that my purpose was to only be a living testimony of the Lord’s immense power. I did not think I was worthy of the experiences God laid out before me; He showed me that by living a life through Him we are heaven’s answer to prayers all around us. He has made us all worthy of His fullness within us.

God continued to scream His presence louder than my disbelief, and when we open our eyes we see it is undeniable.

Our main form of ministry during my time there was something we called activation. In activation, we would read a passage of the Bible and discuss all that the Lord wanted us to get out of it, and then we would go put that lesson into action. The first time we did this we read out of Luke 4, with a focus on verse 40 (“At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying hands on each one, he healed them.”). While I've read this a number of times, God showed us all something new- Jesus had the power to cast healing over the large crowds that were coming to Him but instead He chose to be a personal God that laid His hands on each one of His children. In fact, it probably would have been much easier for him to just declare healing over everyone, but that is not the God we serve. He wants to know us, and place His hands on each one of us, because that kind of love is who He is.

After reading through this passage we went out into the villages for street ministry. We stood in a circle and prayed that God might lead us where He plans to work- to show us those who needed a reminder of His presence through us. After a moment of silence we shared what we saw. Some of the things my group described were- a red pattern, the word "governor", a hill with a gate, and a woman in a brown shirt.

It seems silly now to say that I doubted this method of prayer, but the Lord overcame those doubts with extravagant results.

In the beginning we prayed over a few people without any healing. The moment I began to lose hope we came across a woman sitting in her doorway with a brace on her knee. My leader listened as she explained that she could no longer walk because she had fallen and broken her knee. She described her pain to be a 10 out of 10, she said that she just wished her pain would disappear so she could return to work. In that moment our whole group placed hands on her knee, and prayed with every last ounce of faith we had that God would provide healing for this young girl. I prayed that God would place His hands over His daughter, and that she would know pain is not of the Father or of the life He intends for her to live. The Lord continued to speak through me telling me that His love for her was greater than we could imagine and He has never left her.

Following our prayer, we asked how she felt.

"Better."

We then repeated our previous question, "How much better? On a scale of 1-10?"

She replied, "1".

In disbelief we asked if she could stand up and walk. The young woman stood and walked down the steps of her house completely healed of her pain. God showed up when we called upon Him. He showed up for His children, and He poured out His love over her, because He cares for us the same way He cared for His children in Luke 4:40.

We walked away in disbelief and continued down the road. From that moment our faith in God sky-rocked and His answers were abundant. At this point we had picked up a little boy named John from a friends house and were going to walk Him back to His house. Our ministry host had planned on checking in on Him later that day, because John (6 years old) has terminal lung cancer, but God had us run into Him as we were walking down the street. I was blessed to get to know this joyful, radiant kid, one that you would never guess has terminal cancer. As we walked Him home we discovered He lived on top of the largest hill in the village, because of this he could not walk up himself. I got to be the one to carry John up the hill and by the time I got to the top I was physically spent but my heart was filled with more love than I had ever felt in my life.

When we got to his house his mom, Maria, was in a brown shirt holding his little brother, Jack (side note: both the hill and the brown shirt were things God had showed us through listening prayer). Maria showed me the definition of strength through the Lord. She explained Jack (2 years old) had been sick for almost 2 weeks, she housed lots of guilt because she could not be around a lot with John's hospital visits, and Junior (8 year old older brother) had been exiled at school because His friends were scared John's cancer was contagious. Lastly, Maria was a widow, 7 months pregnant, and the man who got her pregnant left her because he thought the next baby would have cancer as well. My group split up and prayed over each member of the family. While Maria felt abandoned and cursed, I saw a daughter who had been filled with the immense strength of the Lord and a sister who had not been denied but saved because of the Lord's love for her.

We got the opportunity to return to the house two days later and we witnessed yet again God's incredible presence. Jack was no longer sick, but instead running around with his brothers. Maria who once look drained and exhausted, was filled with life and warmth because she knew that, despite how she felt, she was not alone. While I will probably never hear the end of the story, I have more faith than I can describe with words that the Lord will provide a miracle for John. The Father has wrapped that family up in His presence, and He cares for them more than we can imagine.

I arrived in Guatemala with so many expectations, but none of them included the amount of miracles I would witness. My team has a running list of all the ways He answered prayers, and performed miracles. We would truly be here for days if I tried to tell every story. God's presence shattered my disbelief, and showed me when we call upon His name, He answers. We serve a God of wonders- a God who loves His children, a God who wants to know you intimately, and a God who wants to heal. The miracles we read about in the Bible are not just those of the past, but stories to show us that faith can move mountains, and in fact mountains are still being moved all around us.