The prayer of faith...

On Wednesdays we have family groups both in Cofradia and in Arrayanes. I attend one on Wednesday in Arrayanes that is composed of primarily family members of Sandy, including the girl herself and Jay and Faith and I. Recently we've had some new attendees: Sairah and her daughter Carla (age 15), and they bring along the baby Edgar who's about 1 (their other son Juan has been attending church for some time now, though without his family). This past Sunday, they were all in church including Sairah's husband, Emiliano, and tonight Carla came for the first time to youth group!

And this is the story of how they all ended up attending various church meetings.

It seems that about a year ago, Gabriel, one of Sandy's uncle-cousins, decided to pray for three people--that God would bring them to salvation and have them start coming to church. Emiliano, Gabriel's brother, was one of them. He finally came this past Sunday, as I already mentioned, but it wasn't just out of the blue. Their baby, Edgar (about 1 year old, please note), has been a sickly child. He would daily feel bad in some capacity, whether it was sniffles, not eating, not sleeping well, running a fever, etc. Erika, Gabriel's wife and Sandy's aunt, had been trying to reach out to Sairah (while Gabriel was praying for Emiliano, her husband), and finally convinced Sairah a few weeks ago to bring Edgar to family group so that we could pray for him. She did just that, and we prayed for Edgar and then visited for a bit before heading home. The following week Carla was at a monthly youth event in Cofradia, and the week after that they were both in family group with Edgar. They have continued to come ever since. Then the whole family came to church this past Sunday--the first time.

This past Wednesday, at the end of family group, we were talking about how the way we live our lives makes a difference and ended up on the topic of prayer and its effectiveness. Sairah jumped into that conversation and talked about how for so long Erika had been trying to get her to come to church or family group but she never would. She shared about how Edgar was always so sick and she was at the end of her rope as far as how to get him better, and she finally agreed to let us pray for him that Wednesday night about a month ago. She said since that night he's been fine. He eats well, and he sleeps better. He hasn't run a fever or had cold symptoms or anything else. He's not irritable but rather is now a happy little 1-year-old, and she knows that it was because of that prayer that night. After that she decided she wanted to know this God that healed her son through prayer, and she's been coming to family group ever since. Her husband is a harder case to work on, but they did finally convince him to go to that Sunday service last week. Carla has been coming with her mom to family group, and finally was granted permission to come to youth group with us! Now Erika and Sairah together are working on Gabriel and Emiliano's mother, and both say they believe that one day, she too will know the Lord.

But God started working in this family even further back than all this because Juan who is about 12 has been in Faith's Sunday school class for quite some time now, attending every Sunday even without his family! Who knows what kind of a role that played in helping to bring his mom and his sister to a knowledge of the Lord. Please keep this family in your prayers: Emiliano and Sairah, Carla (15), Juan (12), and Edgar (1).

And it gets even cooler! Carla has been very open and friendly to Sandy and Mili and I for some time...well, in regards to church stuff. Granted, Carla is Sandy and Mili's cousin, and for that reason has always been on good terms with them, but I have never noticed that they were ever really engaging in making it more of a friendship or that the girls were actively trying to reach out to her. But they have certainly played a part in Carla's drawing closer to the church over the last month, and I'm encouraged to see how Sandy reaches out to her very actively now.