Medical Clinic 1
(Aaron VanManen writing…):
To descibe the first medical clinic, let me take you back a week. I recieved an email from Dan asking if I would lead devotions for the group on the first medical clinic day. If you have been on a Paradise Bound trip, you know the power of Dan’s devotions and the responsibility to try and fill his shoes. I prepared and had a devotion planned and ready to go.
After packing meds, rice, beans and other necessities all morning, we gathered as a group after lunch to spend time in devotions. We started with a little singing and praising the Lord. Then, it was my time to lead, and in what I felt was a distraction, the group started to ask if we should sing in front of the village in Spanish or English? If you notice, what I’m writing is a lot about me and what I felt. I was not aware what God was doing in that moment. God was using what I thought was a distraction from devotions as His way of speaking.
We decided to sing in Spanish at the village that night and go with that. I led devotions, then we gathered by the vans to pray and headed to the village. The time in the village was great. As I watched Hermano preach, I noticed that he set his Bible down and did not read from it. That is not like Hermano to not read from the Bible. What he did was preach on a Spanish song we sang, the Wonderful Cross (Maravillosa Cruz). Hermano went off the words of that song and preached a powerful message that brought forth the whole village to accept Christ. Yes, I said the whole village. WOW! That is the power of God working.
The power of understanding the moment came as we were riding back home. What I took as distraction, God was speaking and knew we needed to sing Spanish because that is how God was going to speak to the hearts of the people in that village. The power of the Lord last night was greater than all we could ask or imagine. What I thought was a distraction God was speaking. Praise the Lord for people that were willing to let God speak, for Hermano who let God speak, and for the village who let the Spirit dwell in their hearts to be softened and accept Christ.
God is speaking! Are we listening?
