Wednesday, August 28, 2013

midwifery

It was unexpected and yet we had prayed for this very thing in the morning before we set out to do errands:  "Lord, give us divine appointments.  Please."  The Rockwood team and I had been shopping in the local supermarket buying coffee and last minute things for the five year celebration of a miracle healing God had done in my life.  We were all excited to see what God might do.  I stopped at the mini pharmacy right off the checkout line to buy Cipro for those suffering from stomach ailments on the team.  I asked for this highly efficient med for the dreaded traveler's diarrhea and while awaiting for it to be produced, I decided to clean my hands with my antibacterial hand cleanser.  I pulled out of my purse what I thought was this cleanser but to my surprise when I rubbed the gel on my hands it was not gel.....I had inadvertently purchased  oil drops for the hair which is highly pungent and not cleansing at all but the packaging is almost identical.  So there I was with smelly oil all over my hands and the person attending me at the pharmacy looked at me and handed me a Kleenex and suggested that I buy some gel from her.
One of these things  is not like the other
 So we got to chatting as I wiped my hands about how we can mistake one thing for something totally different and this topic led to another and soon we were conversing about eternal life.  I asked her if she was sure that she had eternal life and she replied with a resounding NO.  By this time another attendant had joined her behind the counter and she too said that she did not have any assurance of eternal life.  So I asked them if they would like to know how to have this assurance of where they would go after they died and both nodded their heads in the affirmative.  So I explained how the Bible was written, "so that you might know that you have eternal life."  They gave me their full attention as I explained how God had come to earth specifically to die in their place to purchase the gift of life eternal for them.  When I asked them if this made sense to them and if they would like to receive this precious gift, one of them exclaimed, "Who wouldn't want such an amazing gift!"  Suddenly the phone rang and the young woman with whom I had initiated this conversation excused herself to answer the phone.  So I prayed with the other woman but before she finished the prayer to ask Jesus to come into her life to take control, the other woman quickly hung up the phone and returned  to us and, without missing a beat, started repeating the prayer of salvation.  When we finished praying she lifted her head and said, "I got off the phone quickly because this was just too important to miss."  My eyebrows arched in high surprise.  This was amazing!  I could barely believe it or contain my joy.  I found a quote this week from Call the Midwife that describes how I feel about spiritual midwifery.

"There were days and deliveries where I couldn't believe it either, but this was and will always be the most commonplace of miracles. An event at once familiar and phenomenal, timeless and immediate. Briefly making angels of us all."

While this was written about actual factual birthings, it can totally be applied to spiritual rebirth.  There is such joy and phenomenalness involved in witnessing a new birth spiritually.  I can never quite get over it.  Each person's entrance into the Kingdom of God is at once familiar and breathtaking because of the working together of the Holy Spirit and the human porter of the message.   We are but midwives encouraging with waiting hands outstretched to catch the new believer as the Holy Spirit brings forth new life.  I still cannot believe He lets us participate in this great eternity impacting event.  And yet He does, over and over again.  It is one of the things we do as Christians that totally alters eternity!

After encouraging the women to attend their local church and to read their Bibles, I ran out to the parking lot where the team was waiting patiently for me in the back of the KIA pickup truck.  Sitting under the Honduran sun didn't seem to have irritated them, which I praised God for, and then I shared with them what God had done and they, too, rejoiced at the power of the Holy Spirit and His answer to our morning prayer.  The Kingdom of God enlarged by two.....

Oh God, thank you for letting us be midwives.  Thank you for letting us be a part of the enlarging of Your Kingdom.  May we be about Your business, trusting You to set up the divine birthing appointments and the daily witnessing with our lives.

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