Guest blog post by Rene Marroquin ~ "What if…we love her…"

It’s seven in the morning and we’re getting ready to be in the place that God sends us to, a little village in the mountains of Guatemala called El Rosario.

Every time we get there it’s an adventure.  We never really know what’s going to happen, and what I mean is, WE REALLY DON’T KNOW!   We have so many, so many, crazy stories to tell about the great love of God for His people and how He takes care of them in this little village.

But let me just share about the lady at the well.  Yea, you probably have heard about this in the bible, in John 4, when Jesus approached the village of Sichar in Samaria.  But this time the actors have changed a little. 

Artist Hyatt Moore

The cast is made up of four missionaries, three friends and me.  This story starts at the house of Francisca.  She has four daughters.  One of them, Nohelia is 17 years old, has problems walking.  She limps and her hands have deformed with time because she has some kind of disease that I can’t explain.  Nohelia has a tumor in her head and has grown up malnourished.

We became friends with Nohelia.  She is smart.  She is beautiful. It seems like I’m quoting the movie “The Help” but this little girl didn’t know these things and God sent us there to remind her how important she is and how loved she is.

In the middle of our conversation we noticed that Francisca’s daughters were filling buckets of water from a well that is close to their house (they don’t have running water in their house). They were pouring water into a large blue barrel that they have at home.

When I saw Nohelia carrying buckets of water I immediately saw George and David like…“ok guys let’s do this” and we helped carry water to the big barrel.  When we were almost done filling the barrel, Nohelia approached the well to fill her bucket. I was there filling mine when another lady who was really angry, started to rebuke Nohelia in front of me (she thought I was American).  She started to tell her “Now you’re asking for help.  Ha!! You’re asking these gringos to help you??  Shame on you!!!”

I don’t know how to explain this. I was speechless. This girl, even limping and sick was working so hard to get some water.  And instead of helping, this lady came and started to rebuke her.

At this point I was so mad and angry with this lady, so I came to George and explained the whole situation and we both were like “What the heck!!!!”

We finished filling the barrel but the thought of this lady didn’t go out from our hearts.  George approached me and asked me… “What if…we love her…” 

“Who?”  I asked. 

“The lady that makes you so mad.”

I immediately felt the Holy Spirit doing something inside of me. For some reason that day we had bags of food that a TV channel in Guatemala gave us to share with people in need.

George asked me to get a bag of food and go to her house, pray for her and ask her if there is something she needs or something we can do for her.

“Of course,” I said.

 I asked Nohelia, “Would you like to go with us to share some food with this lady who rebuked you?”

She answers yes!!!

         

My missionary friend Lindsey Owens went with me to her house, and Nohelias neighbor came too!  Elvira, is a woman of God.  I’m so glad she came with me. The four of us didn’t have time to think.  Before you knew it we were knocking at her door.

I don’t know what she could have been thinking when she opened the door and I told her “BUENOS DIAS”.  She went out of this world because she heard me speaking in English earlier but she didn’t know I was Guatemalan.  She replied “Buenos dias.  Pase adelante” (come inside).

I told her, “We are here because we love you and God loves you and we just want to ask if we can pray for you?”  We gave her the bag of food which gave us the chance to love her.

She didn’t answer so I asked again, “Is there is something we can pray for?”  As soon as I ask the 2^nd time, she lost it. She started to cry.  But this time she wasn’t alone.  We were there to cry with her. 

She said, “Mi cania” which is a vulgar way to say “my leg”. I bent down in front of her to see her leg.  She rolled her jeans up and showed a terrible scar. She was alone, tired and broken hearted.  She had a lot of pain in her leg because a big piece of wood fell on her when she was getting wood to cook. We prayed for her and we even sang with her!  This is the song that Elvira started to sing as soon as we finished praying. The song says this:

“Everything is possible if you can believe.  Everything is possible if you can believe.  Faith moves the hand of God through his living word.  Everything is possible if you can believe”.

I found myself in this ladies house, with my hands up in heaven, worshiping a God of love.  A God, who instead of giving us what we deserve, loves us and saves us from our sins.  A God who provides for our needs, in the right time. That is my God.

John 4  You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.  The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!  You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. ³⁸ I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”