Small Rewards

The apostle Paul taught that "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen in eternal." I think a good part of that means that even if we aren't "seeing" a lot of results from our Christian labor, it doesn't mean God isn't doing eternal things. (Maybe we should even be glad when it doesn't "look" like things are going good!)

But God provided a few small rewards for me today as I walked the mountains near our Chiminisijuan clinic again with Thomas. He and I set out to visit families (many single moms) early this morning, and I might even say we're getting better at finding people and growing worse at getting ourselves lost! Anyway, in the course of visiting about 7 families who had asked us for food, we had two cool testimonies from their neighbors. One was a young man who stopped by the first house we were visiting. He came over to tell us that God had healed him of some stomach sickness a few years ago after we (I don't really know if I was at clinic then) prayed for him. He said he had spent Q6,000 (about $750) at a government hospital and never got better. Then, he came to us and for Q2 (about $0.25) he got better! Another lady was the neighbor to the last family we visited, and she told us that God had healed her 1-year-old son a few years ago of a swollen arm (sounds like it was an infection). She said, "I came every week for milk, prayer, (and I think) medicine, and my son got better!" She actually said "God healed" my baby. Now I and most Americans whose brain is bigger that our faith want to think of what sickness exactly these people had, and what medicine probably cured it. But they (and at least 10 others I've ran into during my mountain walks) very confidently say GOD healed them. Some I know for a fact were not a result of medicine because we didn't give them any, and even the others were God because Duane, Leslie, and the entire ministry would not be in Chiminisijuan were it not for God calling them!

God does miracles today. They may be obvious, they may be natural results from obedience, or they may not be known to us at all--but when God does the work, it's eternal!