THE FAITH OF A CHILD
Taken from the book
“Love Stories” By Missionary Pat Bates
Our ministry team experienced a wonderful,
life-changing time of ministry in
It was Good Friday and our Director decided
we should have a short time of recreation before leaving for home. We all loaded into two vans and headed for
We finally arrived at
the foot of the mountain where the falls was located and began our ascent up
the hairpin curves. We got about halfway
up the mountain when the cars stopped completely. We decided to get out and walk the rest of
the way up. We soon found the reason for
the backed-up traffic. A car was coming
down the mountain when the brakes went out and it plummeted off of the curve it
was traveling on and fell to the one below.
Four men were lying on the pavement and were very seriously hurt. The scene was not a pretty one. Heath looked up at me and said, “I need to
pray for them.” As a mother of an
eleven-year-old, my first reaction was that he should not see such a sight, but
the Holy Spirit said, “Let him go.”
Heath was the first
one to go over to the men. He approached
the first man and laid his hand on the man’s head and began to pray in tongues
. . . the man opened his eyes and Heath saw the “face of terror” for the first
time in his life. Heath smiled at the
man and repeated a phrase in Spanish that we had learned in class . . . “Jesus
te ama” . . . Jesus loves you and the man smiled and his face became peaceful.
The nurse from
As I stood back and
watched Heath, wanting to help, but knowing this was Heath’s time to learn and
be used of God, I was amazed at his love and compassion for these men. You see, I knew my call to Missions had a
twofold purpose. I was to fulfill the
Great Commission, as directed by the Holy Spirit, AND I was to prepare Heath
for his calling.
As we silently visited
the falls, anxious for the men on the road, we knew something special had happened
. . . we knew even though it was a holiday, even though emergency response was
very slow in Mexico, even though the men didn’t look as if they could survive
one hour more, we knew they would somehow live.
As we started back
down the mountain, one hour later, the men were gone and even their car was
gone. In all of the traffic and backed
up roads, miraculously the ambulance and wrecker had arrived in record time.
I will never forget
Heath’s compassion for these men and his obedience to the Holy Spirit. Heath will never forget the men that he could
only say, “Jesus loves you” to. I know
Heath will be looking for their faces in Heaven when he arrives, and just
maybe, they will be looking for his, too.
I pray that you have
such “Love Stories” in your life, to remember and share with others.
In Jesus,
