On one of our mission trips into Mexico, we were working with a small Mexican church. Our initial plan was to have a meeting next to the church. But when we got there, a major sandstorm was in progress. If you’ve never seen a sandstorm, it’s like a blizzard, only brown. The winds were around 45 mph, and they were rocking the bus. We were about to get off the bus, and I said, “Because of the sandstorm, we’ll have the meeting inside of the church instead of outside the church”. It was about 5 PM and the meeting was scheduled for 7 PM. Someone asked, “Who is going to come to a religious meeting on a night like this?” I said, “Look, this is what you came here to do, and this is what we are going to do”. We had already prayed about this, and we were going to do it! So I divided everyone up into groups, with at least one Spanish-speaker in each group, and sent them out. The groups went door to door, inviting the Mexican people to the meeting. Now in weather like this, the Americans could barely open their eyes. So they would squint to look 10 feet ahead to make sure they wouldn’t trip over anything, and then close their eyes and walk 10 feet. Then peek for another 10 feet and do it again. The sand would get into their eyes, mouths, ears, hair, and clothes. Any crease in your face would collect sand. The sand would stick in the ladies makeup on their faces. If you scratched your head you would get dirty fingernails. What I liked best were the teen boys with jelled hair – that sand turned their hair into a rock! Ha ha! The storm did not let up – it blew sand furiously all night.
The little Mexican church we were having the meeting in was a little larger than a single car garage with cardboard walls. The pastor lived next to the church in a 10 X 12 “house” made of wooden pallets and cardboard, with a curtain for a door. He had a wife and 2 small children. I remember when he got his first propane tank . He was excited about it because he said he finally had something that was worth stealing!
So how many people showed up for this ‘religious meeting’ in the middle of a sandstorm, in this tiny, cardboard wall church? My friend, prayer can accomplish more than you could imagine! Over 200 people crammed into that little church! We counted twice. There wasn’t room for the regular church people or the Americans. The Mexican people were literally sitting on top of each other. My daughter played her violin at the beginning, and there was so little room at the front, that during her playing a Mexican boy kept moving his head back when she came down with her bow! The pastor preached, and over 200 Mexican people gave their hearts to the Lord! That storm could not stop God! Wasn’t it good we didn’t give up, just because it looked bad? Amen!
God’s Point in this story: DON’T GIVE UP JUST BECAUSE IT LOOK’S BAD.
In this story it was about the weather – a big sand storm was occurring and the first thought was, “Why have this meeting? The weather is too bad and nobody will come”. How many times have you let the weatherman decide if you are going to do something for the Lord? Did you know you can pray about the weather? Did you know that controlling the weather is a small matter with God? To those last two statements you might say, “Of course, I know that!” But, many people give up when the weather looks bad. One kid on a mission trip told me that “If it is God’s will that the storm comes, then it won’t do any good to pray about it”. I told him, “I’ll tell you what God’s will is. His will is that none should perish. So if anything comes between us and that, we will pray about it!” And besides that, God can accomplish His Will no matter what the storm does – as was the case here. The real point is Don’t Give Up! Look what we would have missed if we had given up because we thought no one would come…..and why would we think that no one would come? Because we put ourselves in that situation and think, “I wouldn’t come in bad weather like this”. Maybe. If you needed God, and a godly group of people were praying for you… you would come!
Those dear people came! And what a great victory for the Lord! Glory! God is good!
Grandpa Jack's Place 