Bell

    Being in Guatemala has definitely stretched my trust in the Lord. One of the ministries my team was assigned to this month is called ATL time, which stands for Ask The Lord. During this time, we put ourselves in villages or public squares and ask the Lord what we should do. On these days, we do not have a specific “to do list”. Our ministry host says to our team, “we will be here for the morning, so ask the Lord what this time should look like”. This might sound like a blow off to you, but in reality it is extremely powerful to say to God, “right now I am actively surrendering my plans for this entire morning so that your will would be done”. I would like to get to a point in my life where this is what my everyday walk with Him looks like. This time stretches my trust in God because we put ourselves in situations where we have no idea what to do so we have to listen to Holy Spirit. 

    Yesterday morning we walked to a public square with the intention of gathering kids to play ‘futbol’, learn English, and have a Bible class. When we arrived at the square, we could not find any children who wanted to play. The only ones in the square were working as vendors. Obviously, the Lord had something else in store for us so we sat down and prayed that He would show us what His will was for that time. I am still learning to hear God and what exactly His voice sounds like to me, so when I heard “sit still” I did not recognize His voice. Because of my uncertainty, I did not tell my team and we started to walk around the public square.  While we were walking around the square and praying for people, a homeless man stopped us in the exact same spot we began in and asked us to pray for him. As we were praying, a little girl, who was a child vendor, and her friend came over to listen. Two more homeless men came, all of them asking for prayer. Other people started to gather around our circle to ask for prayer or simply to listen. I thought of the stories in the Bible when people flocked to Jesus while he was preaching. It obviously was not to that magnitude, but people were attracted to the Holy Spirit that came with us to that place. As This thought was passing through my head, the Lord reminded me of what he said to me at the beginning of our time – “sit still”. I then realized in that moment that He was trying to tell me that our group did not need to walk around the square. He was going to bring people to us. We did not have to do anything other than sit still and invite Him into the space to move. 

    The little girl, who came over to listen to us praying, stuck around the whole time we were there. She finally got the courage to talk to us and said she felt like she needed to sing for us but she was embarrassed. I encouraged her by saying to her that it was Holy Spirit telling her to sing. It was so beautiful seeing Holy Spirit move through this little girl. We ended up talking with her for a while and found out she was only 14 and had recently moved to Antigua for work. When we finally got around to asking if she wanted us to pray for her, she told us she was scared. This little girl had moved in with her step brother when she came to Antigua and was forced to work from 8am to 6pm selling face masks and other trinkets, but people were not buying from her. If she went  home at the end of the day and did not bring back enough money, her stepbrother would make her go back out at night to make more money. She was a 14-year-old girl who worked all day with little food and was afraid. In that moment, I felt God pulling me to give her a bell I had. Before I left for this trip, my neighbor had given me a bell that her and my mom prayed over. Every time it would jingle, it would remind me that someone had prayed over me. It was a sign of safety for me. The bell was also given with the understanding that I would pass it on when I felt like I did not need it anymore. So I gave this girl the little bell and told her that I wanted her to carry it with her when she was afraid at night to remind her that God will never leave her side. I also told her that when she is no longer scared and has boldness and security in Christ, she should pray a new prayer over the bell and give it to someone else. 

    She came up to me after the whole group prayed and whispered something in my ear in Spanish, which I did not understand, but then she said “gracias” and I said “de nada”.   Two minutes after the girl had left and we began to leave the square, a bell started to ring.