El Salvador Mission Report - Day 5, Amanda
Aug 16, 2010Day 5
Today I believe I saw the Spirit work powerfully. Last night, our opening night of the evangelistic series, had been challenging, and
I had been discouraged. So when Pastor Tara asked me what time I wanted to wake up, I decided to wake up around 6 AM, with the others,
even though the Pastor overseeing my church wouldn’t be there to get me until 8:45, after the others had left, and we getting to bed
late. I knew I would need the time to pray. I am a morning person, but I don’t wake up quickly, or function well on less than 8-10 hours
of sleep. So when I woke up around 4 or 4:30 this morning, it was a little of a surprise. I struggled against tiredness, but I eventually
realized that God was not going to let me sleep. I couldn’t shake the sense that I needed to pray and review the morning and evening
sermons. So around 5:22, I began to pray, not really knowing what to pray or even being able to focus on prayer. I also started practicing
and editing my sermons, focusing especially on the morning message, entitled Sleeping through the Sirens, which was on signs of the end.
After awhile, I heard the others get up and I joined them for breakfast. After talking and frankly, being distracted, I realized
that I was going to be late unless I got in the shower. I HATE cold showers, but I determined that I was going to stand right under the
blast, quit being a wimp, and get it over with. I told myself that real missionaries had far worse things to endure and that it would be
character-building. While in the shower, my friendly fellow evangelists decided to play a trick on me and told me, “Amanda, are you almost
ready? Your Pastor’s here.” Of course, being that I’m often late, I believed them. So I hurried to rinse off and get out. I got out and
slipped into my skirt and blouse, only to discover that they had been kidding me. But I had conquered the cold shower.
Soon enough, though, the Pastor did arrive, and I chose to use the time to continue in prayer and spiritual preparation. The ride
was somewhat longer since we first had to drop off Lee. Also the roads were very rough—pot-holed, and rutted. I prayed for the host church.
I prayed for the visitors I was preaching to, and church members who were not yet fully convicted and converted. I prayed that I would preach
with passion and conviction. And I prayed for the annoiting of the Holy Spirit. I realized that while I knew and thought, in my head, that the
world is ending, and Jesus is coming soon, I didn’t believe it or want to believe it with my heart. I realized that I was confusing the extremism
and wild conspiracy theories of some, with the substance of genuine belief; and that that confusion was feeding an attitude of skepticism. So I asked
God to reveal to me a balanced and rational understanding of His truth, and to give me a passion to share the message.
The morning started off more or less like last night, and I found myself in constant prayer for a pleasent attitude, knowing that across
the language barrier, a smile would be my only means of personally blessing the people. God heard my prayers. Two little girls, sisters, had taken
to me almost immediately, and would run up to greet me and shake my hand during every meet-and-greet song during the service. The youth and young
adults of the church were friendly, enthusiastic, and competent leaders in the church. I felt smiles welling up and spilling over every time I turned
to greet someone—even in the midst of my frustrations. Then came time for the main service. I was confused alot since the head elder kept looking to
me to lead out or give a word, yet I often could not understand, even with translation, what he wanted. At the last minute, after the opening hymn,
they asked me for the scripture text, and I had to pull one up on the spot. I was then grateful that I had studied this morning, and was able to choose
Matthew 24:30 as a suitable sermon text reference.
I preached with all the enthusiasum and energy I could muster, but I still feared I was not dynamic enough to meet their cultural expectations.
Some of the members seemed almost asleep and little children were running around in the back. I feared the head elder and the two youth leaders might have
been the only ones listening. But as approached the climax of the sermon, something began to change. As I half-read, half-recited from memory, Matthew 24:14 and Revelation 14:6-7; I felt my skin tingle and flush, I heard my voice rise in volume, and take on a passion and conviction previously inaccessible to me. I was as though I was not speaking but that someone else, was speaking through me. I believe the Holy Spirit came upon me. I continued in this way until I reached near the end of the appeal, at which point my slides got out of sync and my clicker quit communicating with the laptop. I believe I was seeing the Great Controversy being played out before me. God heard and powerfully ansered my prayers to work on me and through me.
This experience has strengthened my faith in God’s call and purpose for me in El Salvador. I pray for still greater faith and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I would ivite all of you to join me in this prayer.
In His Service,
Amanda Archer
blog comments powered by Disqus
