Salvation!

Pedro had a neat experience a couple of Sundays ago. We were at our home church, and arrived (almost) on time for once ... Just before Pedro headed off to Sunday School, one of the men from church asked him if he would like to accompany him (Phil) to the hospital across the street. Every Sunday, men from church give a devotional at the mental health unit there. This week, Phil's devotion was on prayer, so he asked Pedro to take prayer requests and lead in prayer.

They started out with two men and two ladies. There were some distractions with one of the men, but they tried to keep focus. About halfway through the devotional, a young lady came in and sat down to listen. She was paying close attention. Towards the end of their time, she was asking some very pointed questions about God, forgiveness, guilt, etc. They wrapped up the session with prayer, and as everone got ready to leave, Pedro asked the young lady if he could pray with her before she went. He asked her if she had ever been to church before or had heard some of these things about God, and she said that she knew a little.

Phil and Pedro went through the plan of salvation and asked her if she would like to make that decision to receive Christ as her Savior. She was certain that she did, and so they prayed with her and she seemed to be very genuine in her decision. They could tell that she was very broken in her spirit and at a very low point in her life, and yet she was open to the message because of where she was at in her life.

One of the lessons for Pedro was that the delivery of the message was so simple, and yet it was amazing to see how God had brought the circumstances together to the point where she stepped out in childlike faith to accept salvation. He and Phil could see the joy in her life when she got done praying, and the hope that she had. One of the neat things was that a supporting church of ours is located in her hometown, and she gave Pedro her address and phone number so that he could follow up with the pastor of that church and share her decision.

Please pray for Joan, that she would grow in her faith and be ministered to by the local church in her area. To God be the glory!