Today I met with the Director of Missions for our church's association and a group of leaders from a local Hispanic church. David, our Director of Missions, asked me to meet with them to discuss the possibility of sharing our church facilities with their church. I thought I was just going to be meeting with their pastor and his daughter who translates for him, but there were actually six other leaders from their church, only one of which spoke a little English.
The Hispanic church is nine years old and they had been renting a little storefront building for the last few years. They shared that they had been having problems in the building because the air conditioning had gone out and the owner didn't want to pay the $2,000 fix it unless he raised their rent. They also shared that when it rained, water would come into their children's area and the church has been growing and they needed more space, but they didn't have resources to rent a larger space. Over the past two to three months they had been praying earnestly for God to provide a place for them that would meet their needs and something they could afford.
We had a great discussion and I will be talking with our church about opening our doors to our brothers and sisters in the coming days, but what really touched me during our time together was their passion for prayer. They spoke of how they had been praying with confidence that God was hearing their prayers and that He would answer in His time. They were confident that He would provide a place that would meet all their needs they believed God had brought us together in answer to their prayers. I was also struck by their gratitude - each person individually expressed their gratitude that we would even be willing to consider allowing them to use our building (I told them that it is not "our" building, but it was God's building and He wanted it used for His work and His glory, whoever was using it).
When it came time to depart, David asked their pastor if he would pray for us. We stood, held hands in a circle, and I expected him to pray in Spanish and his daughter translate for me and David. What I heard though, was a chorus of Spanish voices praying passionately to our Heavenly Father with gratitude and confidence that He was not only hearing but answering their prayers. All of them were praying out loud at the same time, and it was beautiful. I didn't understand the language, but I felt the Spirit and the confidence they had in the reality of God hearing and answering their prayers was unmistakable. We have a ways to go before having an agreement to use our building, but if today was an indicator of how things are going to go, God will bring things together for us soon.
Something changed in me today - just being in the presence of the Spirit and of God's people praying with passion and confidence. I can't really explain the change, I just know I am different. Something about praying with my Hispanic brothers (and sister) has stirred something within me to pray with more boldness and passion, having confidence that God is hearing and answering my prayers. I can't wait to see what He is going to do next. I'm praying God spreads this change to those around me as well.
