Asking the Lord in Puerto Rico
Our last day of ministry (Wednesday) was a day in which we challenged ourselves to really “go for it” — to set aside all anxiety and fear and potential embarrassment and put everything on the line.
I’m happy to say that the group met and exceeded this challenge.
In the morning, we broke into two groups — one going to the nursing home and the other staying at the school. Both groups did a lot of manual labor and hard work.
Given the amount of prayer ministry and evangelism we had been doing, this was a great change of gears and opportunity for a different set of gifts to shine.
The nursing home team had the privilege of praying with the residents before beginning two hours of yard work, painting, and clean-up in the heat of the Puerto Rican sun.
The school team cleaned and detailed classrooms in less time than they believed possible.
We asked both groups to pray, even as they were working, being open to how God could use them throughout the day.
In the afternoon, we split up into three teams, each with a leader and translator. The teams were instructed to ask the Lord what they should do and then to respond in obedience. The only agenda that we had was for the teams to avail themselves to God and do whatever he told them to do.
Each group had very different results from this exercise.
Team 1 – Block Party, Anyone?
One group prayed for about five minutes, and then immediately packed up their stuff and hit the road.
They stopped by Walgreen’s (yes, they have Walgreen’s in Puerto Rico) to pick up some supplies and then jumped back into the van, heading for a nearby neighborhood. When one student, Paul, saw a yard full of toys, he said, “Hey, let’s stop here. I’ll bet they have kids.”
The next thing they know, the team had started a block party. Swarms of kids came to play, and they blessed the family with some groceries.
Team 2 – Prayer at the Hospital
Another group spent some serious time in prayer, hearing a number of different things and finally settling on the strongest impression — that they should go to the hospital to pray with people.
Minutes later, this team found themselves on the third floor of a large hospital, praying with dozens of residents. When they left, they went to a nearby emergency clinic to pray with people in the parking lot, who were coming and going.
Some said that this was one of the most amazing experiences in their Christian lives.
Team 3 – Learning Obedience
The third team spent the most time in prayer (about 45 minutes), and chased a number of impressions received in prayer. The group found themselves getting frustrated, as they would sense God was saying something and then not see it come true.
However, at the very end of this ATL (“Ask the Lord”) exercise, they did have an opportunity to hear a homeless man share his story (for 18 minutes straight!).
One girl in the group, Ruth, shared afterwards: “When we were praying, I heard the word, ‘listen.’ At the time, I thought God was telling me to listen to him. However, now I realize that he was telling me to simply listen to this man. So that’s what we did.”
In retrospect, the group realized that they had had some expectations of what this time looked like, and one of the young leaders on the trip, Lynette, reminded the group, “Success is just obedience.” And that’s what they did — they obeyed.
After supper, the teams reunited to debrief their experiences, and then they went directly to a worship service at Centro Cristiano de Restauracion (the church where we’ve been staying) and joined Puerto Rican believers in prayer and praise.
At one point in the service, the church asked our group to come forward, and the leaders and prayer ministry of the church prayed for us. It was an incredible way to cap off our last day of ministry.
Thank you, Adventures in Missions, for impacting four boys’ lives like I have never seen before. The Lord is so faithful. Our boys from Calvary Assembly of God can’t wait to get back to Puerto Rico to minister again. Thank you for teaching them to “listen”, which they have passed down to all of us at church. They went down there to impact Puerto Rico, I just don’t think they realized how much Puerto Rico was going to impact them.
May God continue to richly bless your ministry.
Ginnie Postlethwaite (mother of Richard)
Our pleasure!