CROSSINGS MISSIONS MINISTRY

WOW! How can I describe the events of Tuesday? The word humdinger doesn't do all that transpired justice. But through all of the high and lows of the days events and activities, it was a blessing.

Let's begin at the beginning.

Monday night was a torrential downpour. The hardest rain I have ever experienced over a prolonged amount of time. The weather wasn't severe, no tornadoes or hail or anything like that but the rain was coming down in buckets. Massive raindrops about the size of oranges. The rain washed out roads and knocked out the electricity and WiFi at our hotel...(yes, we are suffering for Jesus in Central America.) So what is the significance of this rainstorm?

In order to save ourselves some time setting up on Tuesday morning for the clinic, after we were done with our clinic at the orphanage on Monday, we decided to deliver all of the totes with ALL of our medical supplies to the site of our Tuesday clinic. Little did we know that the church - Iglesia Ebenezer - would flood.

Fortunately, one church member was concerned about the state of our supplies and went to the church to check on things. When Jessica arrived, at 12:30am on Tuesday, she saw our totes floating on almost three feet of water. Jessica rallied her pastor and the other church members and they worked ALL NIGHT to get the building cleaned and salvage what meds and supplies could be saved for us to use in our clinic.

To be honest, many churches would have thrown in the towel, but not the members of Iglesia Ebenezer. The were tireless in their efforts and their selfless acts were an inspiration to our team. We were only a few minutes late opening for clinic, and while we are having to do without some meds, much of what we brought was saved.

Following a full day of work - including construction teams at two additional locations - we returned to Iglesia Ebenezer to join them for worship. That was also a rich blessing. We didn't understand everything that was said or sung, but our hearts were joined in worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were blessed to have the privilege of worshiping with them, experiencing a worship style that is unique to their culture. The word Ebenezer means "Stone of Help" and on Tuesday, the Lord fulfilled His promise to be all of that and more.

Soli Deo gloria.

Michael