Nicaragua 2009: John's Story

I asked the team members to submit stories that were particularly touching to them during the trip for inclusion as a guest post. Today I would like to tell John's story. As I mentioned before, John is the associate pastor at New Life. While I was worried about leaving a wife that was 4 months pregnant, John went on this trip with a wife that was almost 8 months pregnant. The story John tells is an event that impacted me deeply in Nicaragua, through John's actions I saw his heart and his heart is good. The following is John's story:

"Chris asked me to put some thoughts down about a specific event or time in Nicaragua that really impacted my life. There are too many to mention here but since this is his blog I will share with you a moment that we had together in the local dump.

For those of us who have trusted Christ as our Savior we have the great honor of calling the God of this universe "Father"-- we are His children! This is such a special relationship, my relationship with the Father in heaven has grown to be the sweetest thing I know! I am a father of 3 boys and will soon have a daughter!

God has used these children to show me how much He loves us!

Many times I have watched my children running and playing without a care in the world and then all of a sudden down they go "ouch"! It doesn't take long before they are in my arms and in the midst of the tears, dirt, and blood all they can say is "daddy!" Why do they do this? Because they know their "daddy" is going to take care of them and make it all better and it usually only takes a kiss and a band aid and they are back in full swing.

With this thought in mind I want to share with you what I experienced in the dump with my "brother" Chris!

We were in the this dump and words alone can not describe just how bad this place was, the smell was horrible ,the people were covered in dirt and filth and it was obvious that they were probably all infested with disease from living in this place! It is probably the closest thing imaginable to "hell on earth"! There are pictures and videos of this place on this blog, take a minute to check them out.

Anyway, the group had moved ahead a little further in to the dump. Chris and I had begun to fall behind about 50 yards because we were taking pictures. The place where we were walking was full of trash and it was difficult to walk in because were literally walking on mountains of trash! As we were walking, Chris lost his footing and fell; breaking the skin and drawing blood on his arm. In any other situation we wouldn't have given it a second thought but in this dump I took this very serious!

The team immediately gathered around Chris and helped him get his wound clean. Thank God we had a nurse (Kim) on the team!

Anyway, as they cleaned him up the Spirit of God kept urging me to pray for my brother!
I saw something on my friends face that said he needed his "daddy". So I pulled him to the side and together we prayed! There are few times in our lives when we pray that we recognize that the Spirit of God is praying for us and through us and this was one of those times! I can tell you that there was not a lot said and I honestly can't remember much about the prayer but through the tears I do remember saying "Father protect him" over and over in my mind!

As we finished praying I immediately felt the peace of God and I knew my friend would be fine.
Looking back I can not help but imagine God holding my brother in His arms, cleaning him up and putting him back on his feet!

I praise my "daddy" in heaven for His love and compassion!"