From Geoffrey to you ; Miracles

Saturday July 11, 2009

MIRACLES!!

Before I was a Christian I had this problem with believing that there was a God. I knew a lot of people who believed in some sort of a God somewhere, but how did they know he existed? I didn’t hear a voice, see a light or walk on water, so I found it very difficult to believe in something I couldn’t see. I remember telling God to reveal himself to me, to prove his existence and I demanded to see a miracle, then and only then would I believe. If God is so great and so powerful, if he really did create the world and the universe then turning my cup of water into wine shouldn’t be a problem right? When I read the bible I see people demanding the same miraculous signs that I do. The pharaoh demanded a miracle from Moses to prove he was from God. Herod was giddy when he first met Jesus because he eagerly wanted to see a miracle. People were demanding signs to validate their faith and for entertainment, just like I did.

It has been about two weeks since Janet had her operation. If you haven’t been keeping up with the messages or you missed the ones about her, she is the girl who has been completely blind for the past eight months or so, they told her she would never see again and unbelievably her eyes began to improve dramatically, after a month they had improved so much (unexplainably) that she was able to have an operation which took place about two weeks ago. I am completely amazed and in awe of this whole situation; against science, reason and logic this girl who was never supposed to see again is seeing. The past two days she has been cooking all of the meals in her house, something she hasn’t been able to do since she became blind. How does that happen? I consider this a miracle, something that happens against all reason and logic. I have spent my entire Christian life on the edge of my seat waiting to see a miracle like this. I have always wanted to see someone crippled walk, or the blind see, or water turned into wine and now I have.

I always wondered how the Israelites could walk away from God so many times. How can they be guided by pillars of fire by night and pillars of smoke by day, have water come out of rocks, have clothes that grew with them and be surrounded by miracles and yet walk away from God and doubt that he exists? How can you see the Red Sea part in front of your very eyes and yet think God isn’t real? Have you ever wondered the same? I think I know why.

Does a fish know that it is wet? No, because for its entire life it has been living in water and it knows nothing else. I think that the Israelites were walking with God for such a long time that the awe and amazement soon faded and they stopped acknowledging things as divine miracles and labeled them as mundane and routine. I am completely amazed by Janet’s case, I was in the room when the doctors told her she would never see again and visiting her everyday has enabled me to watch the entirety of this miracle, but I think there are more miracles going on than I realize. I have been completely surrounded by them for such a long time that I have allowed myself to lose the admiration and awe.

I think that everyone has a different understanding of what a miracle is, for me it is something that is seemingly impossible or incredibly difficult that happens. I don’t think that it needs to be completely impossible to accomplish to be a miracle, but that is just me. I realize that miracles are happening all around and yet I am so used to them or they aren’t as spectacular as I imagined and I brush them off.

I think about what it must be like for an AIDS orphan to find out that they are going to be sponsored by Tumaini. Imagine that out of the MILLIONS of AIDS orphans that are oppressed, suffering and impoverished you are chosen and your dreams of going to school are met along with getting food, medical treatment and other goods. I remember a girl telling me how overwhelmed with joy she was when she got the letter from Tumaini saying she was sponsored, she glowing when she told me. For us this doesn’t seem like much of a miracle, when I started sponsoring a child from Tumaini I didn’t think much about it, but when I see it from the child’s point of view I realize how miraculous and how much of a Godsend it is and how many prayers are answered by getting that letter in the mail. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me and asked me to buy them food because they had absolutely nothing. Sometimes I am able to give and other times I have nothing with me, but regardless of if I give or not they survive. How is it that there are people living here with absolutely no money, no income and no hope of an income and yet they are able to eat? There is a guy here who has a HUGE servants heart, how is it possible for that to happen when he was orphaned by his parents and grew up on the streets? All bit of logic and reason in my body would say that he would join the other streets boys in stealing, drinking, doing drugs and seeing prostitutes, but he doesn’t… how can that be anything but a miracle? What about Carro getting a wheelchair, getting funds for her operation, having her families rent paid for six months, out of the billions of people on this planet how is it that she was provided for? How can that be deemed as anything but a miracle? What about back at home? Do miracles happen in the states? YES.

I remember when I was with a youth ministry in Inglewood and what type of people made up our youth ministry: gang bangers, drug dealers, kids who didn’t know their fathers, single parents, drunks and some of the worst people by societies standards. How is it that these people who should still be out there dealing drugs, sleeping around, getting drunk every weekend or stealing had their lives transformed? How can a former gangbanger bring all of his fellow gang members to church and help them all to walk away from the violence and addiction? That isn’t a miracle? What about when a homeless man who had been addicted for drugs longer than I have been alive showed me all of his drugs and threw them all away, that is a miracle!

Miracles happen everyday, not just in Africa, we are fish that haven’t gotten out of the water yet, we haven’t realized they are miracles yet, but once you realize what a miracle is you will join me in standing in awe of the unbelievable things taking place all around us, which shouldn’t be confused with coincidences.

Prayer Requests:
Stacy was supposed to get her wheelchair yesterday. It has been nine weeks…. I am going to go by today to see if it came. This wheelchair will completely change her life and her family. Join me in prayer for her.
We are doing a HUGE three day evangelism campaign, something that from my understandings has NEVER happened before here in Masii, but we are short on funds. We are doing a fundraiser tomorrow, join me in prayer that we will raise the needed funds. Our outreach is going to be in Kosovo, a place called Dark Estate that has devil worshipping churches and is very poor, and a street called Misery Street because of the extreme poverty, drug addiction and prostitution there. We are also doing a lot of HIV and AIDS prevention. We also want to distribute food. We have HUGE plans but we are still short about $700 of what we are looking for to make it happen. If everyone gives big at tomorrows fundraiser we should get it, pray that their hearts are touched and that they want to give.
My sickness is completely gone. Thanks for the prayers!!

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