I wanted to report about my day yesterday because it was pretty encouraging for us! We found ourselves in the middle of some answered prayers a number of times.
First, I went with my colleague to distribute humanitarian aid out in the villages near Karlovac. This is the area that we have 14 households we give to. We were encouraged again when a woman from down the street from one of our bakas (grandmas) saw our car and came to hunt us down. She said that her mom had recently broken her hips. She lives on 300 kuna a month (about $50). Her general health is in bad condition. Recently this daughter had to come back from Serbia to take care of her mom...and the daughter's situation is almost as bad (financially). Anyhow, this mom lives nearby so we went to visit her...and the situation was as bad as her daughter had explained it. We told her that when we came through next month we would for sure bring her a package of food.
On another note, we asked our people if this package of food got them through the entire month. They said with the exception of a few items, this package was getting them through the month! To give you an idea of how much these people need, we spent about 170 kuna per family (less than $30). They don't need much and are thankful, content people. We learn a lot of them.
Finally, while we were out there we were able to pray for multiple people. There's one lady in particular who lives with her son up on an isolated hill in one of the villages. To get to her house we have to park the car and walk 5 minutes up a rough road (passable only with a 4x4). She's mostly deaf and can barely see. She doesn't go outside because she can hardly move around. There is very much a sense of depression and sadness all around this home. When we ask her how she is she always says she's horrible. We tell her that God has not forgotten her and that He loves her...that's why we're here. She says she doubts that God remembers her. It's a heavy, sad place...but we just keep praying for her and telling her about who Jesus is. We feel privledged that in such a remote, isolated place we're able to get to her and bring the Kingdom of God that's in us into that home. What a great opportunity!
When I came home from distributing aid, we started to prepare for our cell group which was at our house that evening. We were not expecting a lot of people to come and honestly, it has been a bit discouraging lately. Some people that we had great expectations for had let us down, etc...so we were trying to move on from that. So, last night we weren't expecting too much, but God had different plans.
I'm not sure if any of you remember a guy I have asked you all to pray for before. I won't mention his name for his privacy...but he is the husband of a woman in our church. He is a believer, but for the majority of their marriage he has been deathly afraid of sickness. It's a long story of how this all happened, but the bottom line is he didn't leave his apartment for a few years. His mental illness was severe. But we prayed for him. We visited him often. We had prayer meetings and even cell meetings at their house so that he could be included. Bottom line is, we just kept praying for him. In recent months, he finally started to take little steps of going out....to get groceries, to pick up their son from daycare, etc. We were so encouraged by this and it only fueled our prayer...so we kept praying. Well, last night, for the first time in his life he came to a cell group at our apartment! We were SOOOOO encouraged! He participated well and experienced what I think was a life-giving time at the group. Praise God with us for this breakthrough. He's a deliverer even of the most difficult cases. Though there's more deliverance needed in this case, God is not done with him.
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