Ever heard the phrase “Prayer changes
things” or “God answers prayers”? I think of prayer as
something God wants us to do to keep a relationship with him but I
found new meaning of the word prayer in Haiti. At first we began in
port Columbus praying for a team member who could not stop vomiting
before our 7am flight to Haiti. We laid hands on him in the middle of
the terminal and prayed for God to heal his stomach, his sickness
went away immediately. A few days later we were having a group prayer
before heading into the mission field for the day when our Pastor had
a sense that a Haitian woman needed prayer for vision, she then
disclosed to us that her eyes had been bothering her the past week
but God put on our pastors heart during that time to pray for her
with our group. She felt instant relief after we ended our prayer. Lastly we were playing a pick up game of basketball
in our down time when one of our team members heard a pop and fell flat on the ground
after suffering what he thought was a broken ankle. Before he could
even grab his ankle in excruciating pain we already had two team
members laying hands on his ankle asking God to heal him. A moment
later he was walking around as if nothing happened. He swore up and
down that he felt his ankle snap and that it was broken but he
admitted later how he could feel pain leaving his body during those
prayers. All of these were very powerful instances of prayer but none
of them compare to the story I am about to tell you.
The day after a tropical storm hit
Haiti, we ventured out into a tent city to pass out water filters and
candy for the children. We quickly learned that these acts of
kindness simply were not enough. Tents were ripped and torn down
during the storm. The roofs of the Haitian houses were torn straight down the middle
and the water from the storm had flooded most of these homes. While
walking through the tent city filled with thousands of homes we began
praying for people, most of them asked for food. It broke my heart to
share with them that we had no food but we could offer them Jesus.
After two hours of going from tent to tent we came across an elder
lady, she stood about five feet tall and shivered as the cold water
continued to come down on her already soaked t-shirt. I asked her if
we could help her in anyway, our interpreter mentioned how she had
experienced a rip in the tarp that covered her 15 by 20 square foot
home. We followed her into her home, as I looked down her ankles were
buried in mud, her bed laid an arms length away. She told us she had
no food for her children and that she needed God to provide.
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God answered her prayer! |
The previous hour I had drawn a blank
when praying for these people, “how could God help these people?”
I thought to myself. There was no store around, no money to buy
anything and no food in site. I felt helpless and even worse I
felt like God couldn't help them. She then grabbed my hand and asked
if I would take a picture with her on my camera, I asked her why and
she said “So you can go back to your country and show people so
they will help provide a tarp for my home.” Chills ran through my body, I
wanted to cry but I was too cold. It hit me that I would soon be back
in our comfortable house a few minutes away so I took off my long
sleeve shirt and put it on her, we took a picture and I prayed for
her. I prayed that God somehow work a miracle and bless this woman
with shelter, I prayed that he blessed her financially and that
somehow He fills her heart with joy and love. As I finished the
prayer she squeezed my hand and said “God Bless you”. I walked
away with my head down, not caring about the deep puddles ahead of
me. I got back to the truck and I was covered in mud, I was angry, I
prayed to God asking him why people have to suffer like this, why do
I have to witness this mess?
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Dean is in the blue shirt next to me |

I LOVED this, Zach! Thank you for sharing your experiences. My eyes are full of tears, and my heart is overwhelmed by this story. :):):) God is GREAT! -Meghan Sandrock
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