Drop Everything and Pray

God has an amazing way of using us when we least expect it.  I was used as his instrument yesterday and it was incredibly humbling, a very gentle reminder to never stop praying, hoping and expecting miracles.

It has been easy for me to get trapped in the cycle of work here, teaching day in and day out, allowing myself to become tired, rather than fully relying on God's strength.  Someone asked me the other day if we ever get to share the Gospel.  Not explicitly I told him, as in church settings, just in our daily activity and interactions with people.  However, this doesn't always turn out the way that we want it to and our best intentions can be stymied by frustration, mistakes and the almighty "schedule".

Yesterday I had a break between classes at Cite Soleil and I went to the nurses office where Stacey works. It is such a joy to be with the tiniest students, the pre-kindergarten kids here.  They always seem to be lined up at her door.  There were only 2 students however and I went and sat with one, dressed smartly in his blue checked shirt and matching shorts.  He had no idea how cute he was.

They sit so quietly and unassuming, you would never guess what is wrong.  I asked Stacey what was wrong and she told me that he had adventitious sounds in his lungs, a new word for me, but to describe it, the sound is like crackling and popping noises, a surefire sign of infection.  I did not listen, but apparently the noises were all over his lungs and had been since 2 weeks ago when she first checked him.  Despite her recommendations, his parents had not visited the doctor with him, further fuelling Stacey's frustration.

I prayed.  Quietly, and under my breath, holding his tiny torso between my much larger hands.  Other Haitians were sitting very close but they took no notice of me and the boy.  Stacey also was preoccupied.  I suppose I could've rallied the troops for prayer, but I felt this was how the Lord wanted me to pray.  As I touched his back and chest, I never did feel the irregular respirations happening inside him and perhaps even just at that moment he was healed.  I do not remember what I prayed exactly but it was straight from my heart and I knew I truly believed for healing.

I asked Stacey for the stethoscope.  I let Dorsaint, the little boy, play with the stethoscope first before listening to his chest.  As I had not listened before I prayed, I was not sure what to listen for.  As I played doctor, even in my ignorance I was pretty sure I heard nothing.  I asked Stacey to listen, she's the nurse after all.  She checked him out calmly and discovered nothing.  You prayed for him didn't you? she asked.  Ya I did, I replied smiling.

Just 20 minutes ago, Stacey was very worried for the kind of care this little boy would receive when she left him again until the following week.  Her eyes were welling up and I could see that she had witnessed a miracle, and could fully release her worries because of the work God's healing power had done.  She reiterated to me how terrible his breathing sounded.  Furthermore, she asked me if I had been imitating his breathing while I sat with him (while unbeknownst to her I was praying) because she said she heard loud gasps, which I did not hear, though I was holding Dorsaint close.  The illness literally escaped his body as I touched him and prayed.

There are no words to describe miracles and even now I am dumbfounded how He uses His people to make these things happen.  The recipe this day, was immediate obedience, to address a need prayerfully, with very little background knowledge, even less medical experience and a mustard seed of faith.  I was reminded as I prayed just how much God loved Dorsaint and that if I did not pray I was denying him the love that surely Christ would've given him.

A verse I have meditated on this week reads "I will sing a new song unto you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you."  (Ps. 144:9)  I don't have a harp, but I have a new song in my heart, its playing very loudly, often without words, but with obedience, sheer joy and newfound hope.  "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable." (Ps. 145:3)