Miracles

We often say we would like to see miracles, not realizing that we see and do them everyday and don’t realize it. We take many things for granted, but they are still miracles just the same. Being able to talk to God and hear his voice is an awesome miracle or seeing a baby born. So is fulfilling is will by doing the simple things in life and getting through each day. Living in His grace is another miracle, just as sharing God’s love or praying for others. Making friends.is also a miracle. Experiencing God’s joy and peace is another that we often take for granted. Then there are times that God lets us see or experience something special, and that is what has been happening for me lately in Mexico.

A couple weeks ago, two buses with students from the University in Hermosillo, came to do a work project, digging a water diversion canal, in behind the town of La Manga with picks and shovels. The young men and women worked all afternoon and they were tired and sore when they were through. Many had blisters on their hands, including one young man who had torn blister on both hands. As he showed us, I notice his left hand was withered so I reached over and held it and prayed for him and declared it restored. Then I went and got some hydrogen peroxide and put on his blisters and he thanked me. I told him Jesus Christ has healed his hand and that he will see it completely restored. This young mans name was Jesus Roberto.

This is Jesus Roberto

Sunday after church, I was invited to join about ten people from the community church at a restaurant, near the beach, that has a Sunday Buffet with the works, just like in the United States, but it only cost $6.75. They go every Sunday and I’m planning on doing that also, Lord willing. It was also a great way to meet other Americans and some Spanish people and be able to talk.

The pastor of the church gave me a new English Standard Version Bible that is also written in Spanish so I can help other Mexicans. And another lady gave me two Spanish New Testaments and some Spanish Christian booklets to give. God is providing all I need each day.

The Community Church of San Carlos

I had also wanted to help Juan get a new tire, but I can do everything for every one, and I felt God wanted me to wait and trust Him. Then the next afternoon I saw three young Americans standing nearby, one was a woman. So I went over to talk to them and asked where they were from and how long they were staying. I also shared with them why I was in La Mange and told them how I had helped Juan get his truck fixed, but now he needed a new tire, (the tread was separating on the almost bald tire and would no longer whole air in it) as I pointed to the truck parked behind me with a flat rear tire. Then one of the young men said, how much would a new tire cost. I said, about sixty-five to seventy-five dollars. He said that’s no problem and reached into his pocked and pulled out a roll of bills and gave me 700 pesos. I was shocked and happy for Juan. I hugged each of young Christians and thanked them. The girl was also engaged to the other man and so I blessed their marriage and told the one who gave me the money, that he would be use as a mighty man in the Kingdom of God.

I went over to tell Juan, whom was about fifty feet away talking with others at that little market. Juan found it hard to believe that total strangers would give me money for a new tire. Then we saw the three Americans drive away in their car. We both thanked God, who is so good to us. Another miracle!

Then later that day, we heard Delia was in a car wreck, during the night. She had bruised and cut her forehead over the right eye from hitting the windshield, but otherwise she was still okay. However, her car was totaled. The other driver was in a truck and he was too was from La Mange. He is still able to drive his truck that he just had repainted a month ago and neither had insurance to cover their losses. But when we saw Delia’s car after it was towed to La Manga, it was obvious this was a miracle that she was even alive.

There was no air bag in the 2004 Nissan and she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, her head hit the windshield, shattered the glass and created about a 2-inch bulge from the impact. The other driver was not hurt at all. Friends and family gave Delia money so that she was able to buy another car this week. God is so-o-o-o good.

Praise God for keeping Delia safe

The next day, Inrekay, came by Juan house and asked us to go to his ranch and have dinner with his wife and mother. His mother was 86 years old. The next thing I knew I was asked to get in the back seat of his car with his mother and off we went. They spoke very little English, and Juan wasn’t with me. I didn’t even know where we were going and I just had to trust God on this adventure; as his wife handed him another beer while he drove. I thought we were going to a house in San Carlos, because that was the direction we were going,. It turn out that we were going to a grocery store to get food for our dinner. Inrekay offered a grocery cart for his mother to hold on to, but it seemed she would have preferred to hold onto me instead. When we finished shopping, I opened the doors for both the ladies to get in the car. As the old mother went to get in the backseat, she reached for the doorjamb with her right hand at the same time the wife got in front and closed the door on the mother’s fingers. I saw what was going to happen, but there was nothing I could do; it all happened so quickly. I immediately reached down and grabbed the front door-handle and reopen the door. Then the mother was able to sit down in the back seat. Then I got in the car from the other side and took her hand and prayed for it, but there was no blood or broken bones that I could tell as she gently bent and rubbed all four fingers; they were only sore. So I got out again and got some ice and a plastic bag for her hand.

Then I was taken back to Juan’s house, where I was dropped off and I explained to him what happened after the others left for the ranch where we would meet later for dinner. (This was another miracle. It seems God is protecting the people I’m around and I’m very grateful.)

Juan didn’t know where I had gone and so he ate with Manuela, but I reminded him that we had been invited to go to the man’s ranch and they had gotten food for us to eat. So we went to the mans ranch which turned out to be a place that I’ve wanted to go since I’ve been here, because it was at the base of the awesome mountain behind La Mange that for some reason it reminds me of Mt. Sinai. The ranch has about a hundred cattle that roamed his property, plus the streets of La Manga and even the beach where I park at night.

Juan sitting by the pool

As we waited at the range for the man to come back from a short trip, Juan and I walked around. There was a small old concrete swimming pool nearby that was filled by a spring that provided water for the whole ranch. Juan sat down and put his feet in the pool water, which was now cold, because the weather had gotten much cooler. He then proceeded to clean and pumiced his feet while I look around and took more photos of the ranch property and the view from it. As I walked around I asked God, what I was doing here. And He said, “I’m expanding your territory. I replied, “But I don’t even know what to do now. Then He said, “You will when the time comes.” That was nice to know.

When the man came back with his wife and mother, the wife helped the mother out of the car to find a place for her to sit and smoke her cigarettes. While the men got a fire going in the barbeque pit, the wife then took a pan over to the pool to get water to rinse the vegetable she had just bought. As I watched her, she got the water from the exact same place where Juan had just sat half an hour before. Oh well, this is Mexico.

Mother eating with her right hand and Inrekay's wife that prepared the meal that night.

That night under a cabana with a bright moon shining brightly above us, we all enjoyed our beef burritos and vegetables. It was all very good; must of be that special seasoning Juan added that nobody else knew about. The others also drank beer and smoked their cigarettes. This again reminded me of how Jesus must have felt as he ministered to sinners as He traveled around the country.

View from ranch

View looking up the palm covered ravine of the mountain.

The next day, Inrekay came back by Juan’s house again to buy fish from his father. I double-checked the door jam with my fingers around it and there was absolutely no way to close the front door, without doing serious damage to anyone’s fingers. I even tested it with my smallest fingers and with Inrekay’s fingers, to prove it was a miracle. He was hollering long before the door was even close to being shut and the others who watched were laughing. Again I told all of them, this was a miracle regarding his mother’s fingers. Inrikay also told me that I was always welcomed at his place.

It was an awesome week and I have personally experienced a physical miracle too. I’ve taken garlic tablets daily for over four years to keep an infection at bay in my mouth caused by a bad tooth that that turn out to be only partially corrected by a dentist. If I didn’t take the garlic I would have extreme pain in my jaw and sometimes I even had to increase the amount. However, I told you that when I came to Mexico I was going to live and eat by faith. Three weeks ago I took the last garlic pill I had brought with me, because they didn’t carry them in stores around here; just fresh garlic. So I chose to place my trust in God rather than take other alternative and God has been faithful. My jaw and gums had been healed. Praise the Lord and I’m expecting to see more miracles and even the miraculous one.

Amen!