Here's the first article to go on this site. It comes from friend and co-missionary Sherri Bixler. This is a wonderful example of the things God is doing these days for his children who depend on Him for solutions
Enrique is a friend we’ve known for close to a year. We originally met him in a restaurant, and got to know him a little better after he offered to help with some toys for our Christmas CTP (consider the poor or a social works project). I’ve been trying to get an appointment with him to present our pledging program for close to nine months now, and I had actually given up trying to see him because something always seemed to come up.
Then one day another of our home members, Clara, met him in another restaurant. She told me, “You should really try to get back in touch with him. He seems quite potential. So I half-heartedly dialed his number, and surprisingly he answered his cell phone (usually it took many tries to get through to him). When I asked him how he was doing, he explained that his 2-year-old son was having surgery the next morning for a tumor in his leg. When I asked him how he was feeling, he admitted that he was very scared. I assured him that we would pray for his son.
We prayed that night, and the next morning (during the operation)as a Home. After devotions I called him to see how the operation had gone, and he sounded relieved, saying that everything had gone incredibly well and thanking us for our prayers.
I called him a couple of times after that, just to say hi and check on how things were going with his son’s recovery. Finally, one afternoon I decided the crisis was over and it was time to ask him for an appointment. I was able to get him on the phone after many tries, and he agreed to see us in one hour. Amazed, we gathered our material, asked a couple Home members to pray for us, and off we went to what we thought would be a routine pledging appointment.
When we arrived at his office, we found him already waiting for us. His first words were, “Thank you so much for what you did for my son and I.” We were a little confused about what he was referring to, but thanked him and sat down.
He immediately began to explain why he had been so worried about his son’s operation. The tumor had been situated on top of and around a major artery in his son’s leg. The operation was so dangerous that he had sought out the best specialist in Mexico, and brought him all the way from Merida to Guadalajara to perform the surgery. As the artery would have to be cut and then re-attached, it was an extremely high-risk situation.
The night after I called him the first time, he had gone out to eat at a little stand in his neighborhood. Feeling very low and worried, he barely noticed when two little boys—one about 6 years old, the other 10 or 11—sat down on either side of him and ordered one crepe to share. He remarked that they were sharing the crepe, and then bought them some more, and they began to talk. The little boy asked him, “Do you have children?” “Yes,” he replied, “in fact, my 2 year old is having surgery tomorrow.”
“Tell your son that he is going to be OK.” The boy replied.
He thought that was a bit of a strange remark from the child, but agreed to pass on the message. As he got up to return home, the younger boy again called out after him: “Tell your son that I’ll be with him in the operating room tomorrow.”
Enrique thought, again, that the child was very odd. But he was so preoccupied with his sadness and concern that he could spare no energy on figuring out the comment. The next morning, as planned, his son was prepared for surgery. At 7:00 a.m., as they were wheeling the little one away, he began to cry hysterically, “Daddy, don’t leave me! Daddy, come with me!” “I’ll be with you, son, I promise.” Tears filled his eyes as he embraced his wife, and sat down to face the torturous wait.
It was supposed to take five hours, or longer. But after one hour and fifteen minutes the specialist came out, announcing that the operation had gone amazingly well. “Go to your son,” he said. “I have paperwork to do, but I need to talk to you, because something inexplicable has happened.”
When the little boy woke from the anesthesia, his father joyfully whispered, “How are you? I was with you in the operating room, wasn’t I?”
“No, dad, you weren’t,” came the matter-of-fact answer, “but there was a little boy with me.”
Enrique went pale. He was still in shock when the specialist entered the room and got right to the point. “Enrique,” he declared, “you saw the test results, and so did I. All those tests showed that that tumor was wrapped around the artery. But when I went in this morning, the tumor had detached from the artery! It was only superficial, and very easy to remove. I don’t know what happened, but it was a miracle.”
At this point in the story Enrique had tears in his eyes. —So did we. “You see,” he concluded, his voice breaking a little, “those two little blind boys were angels. I went back to the neighborhood and asked everywhere, and no one had ever seen or heard of them.”
Jesus said, “Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to My Father.” He’s just waiting for us to pray.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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