Answered Prayer
Feb 6th, 2008 by Francine Posted in Bluefields 2007, Features, Missions | No Comments
Events in this story took place on March 15, 2007 in Bluefields.
The story starts a week before in downtown Bluefields where Harold was being interviewed by a camera crew, likely because he was the only white guy in downtown Bluefields at the time. Harold shared on Nicaraguan TV that our group was in town and we were holding free eye clinics at Verbo church.
It was the last day of our eye clinics at the church and I remember that morning vividly. As people were lining up and waiting for the day’s clinic to begin, Laura, our clinic leader brought us together to pray. Being our last day of clinic, she prayed for God to bring the most needy people to us so that we could help them, and also for patience and understanding from community members - that they would know that we were trying our best.
Early in the morning, we saw two girls who needed glasses. Their vision was about 800/20 and no matter what we tried, their distance tests were still blurry. We were so heart-broken because these girls couldn’t see peoples’ faces or the board at school and they were so sweet and gracious.
I didn’t know what to do, other than to send the girls away. I didn’t know, but Laura came out and heard what had happened with the girls. She immediately called up Rose, the church administrator to try and get in touch with the local optometrist in Bluefields to set up an appointment, but here was no answer.
Without making any promises since it would be even more heartbreaking to disappoint them, Laura told the girls and grandma Yolanda to stick around, that she was trying to figure something out.
The girls had skipped school and come early in the morning. They sat patiently for about 5 hours. Throughout the day, Laura checked in with them and told them to keep waiting, she was holding on for a phone call.
There were only sweet smiles from the girls and the words out of Miss Yolanda’s mouth were straight out of Laura’s prayer from that morning.
Every time Yolanda would respond, “Don’t worry, God bless you for trying. I know that you’re doing the best that you can.”
Breakthrough came in the last half hour of clinic. A call came in saying that the girls had a confirmed appointment with the local optometrist. She would be able to diagnose the eye problems much better than we could with our rudimentary tools.
Elated, Harold and I packed up the pick-up truck with the girls and Grandma Yolanda and headed out. When we got there, even the optometrist took about 30 minutes to assess each of the girls. They both had myopia, compounded with astigmatism.
It was simply amazing that for the price of $14 and $16 USD from Harold and Laura, we were able to buy gift of sight for these girls. The looks on the girls’ faces were priceless as they realized they would soon be able to see at school and recognize people’s faces. The looks of gratitude from all of them simply touched my heart.
It was only later that Harold told me that while I was in the room with the girls doing their eye tests, he and Miss Yolanda got to talking. She shared that she had seen Harold on TV, and that when she saw him, she immediately started to cry, because she knew that God was going to bless her and answer her prayer for her two girls.
‘not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the lord almighty.
zech 4;6
