El Salvador Day 4 - 2015

When you least expect it, expect it.  Expect  God's grace to flow.  Expect it to flow abundantly.  Today was a one of a kind day.  I guess we let our guard down and did not expect today to be so wonderful.   Today was our first full day of clinics.  Solid work.  We setup our station for glasses and the people started coming. We got busy and then God started moving...

After helping a woman with her glasses, she told tells me: "God is going to bless you for this.  God sent you to me.  I never dreamed I would get to see like this.  I can't afford to buy glasses."  Emotion wells up and I melt.  Such a beautiful inspiration to hear.  Here she is:

And then I still had my guard down, but the spiritual hugs from heaven did not end there.  After helping a lady with glasses she came back.  Usually this means there is a problem, but instead it was a blessing.  She says: " I came back to tell your something, I am familiar with missions like this.  You need to know what good year are doing.  This organization has helped me, and if they had not I would not have been able to get a job.  There are no jobs for those who can't hear or see.  So I am grateful to you" and she starts crying. Wow, just wow.  I could not have prepared for that. I hug her.  Here she is:

But it did not stop there.  Later a woman in her 80's comes to us with her daughter.  As she sits down, she says:  "You are the one who is going to get the devil out of me!"  I blush a bit and say hmmm,  thinking she is confused, and just begin the fitting process.  The  woman already has glasses and the prescription looks very strong.  Immediately we think, we probably can't help her.  But we try everything anyway.  And then we tell her we can't help her, but she refuses to get up.  Finally we say, let's pray over her, and we do, asking God to help her see.  Then she still won't get up and leave.  So I say, let's try an adjustable, believing she needs glasses for close vision, but we can at least say we tried everything.  We set the glasses to a low strength and try.  We get a nice smile.  We increase the strength, and get a bigger smile, further, and a huge smile.  She can see well.  It turns out the glasses she had been wearing were just some terribly incorrect glasses for her.  The medical student translator with me says "I am getting chills."  God is so good.  Here is our group picture:

We helped 152 people see better today and at the same time we were very fortunate to also see the hand of God.  I cannot help but think how much the people of El Salvador must pray.  They are so close to God, and we are humbled to be with them.  Here is a group waiting to be seen:

Later as things begin to slow down, we take a moment to brighten the day of a boy who had shoes that were worn out.  We gift him a pair of shoes and a toy car.  He proudly displays his car with his grandmother:

As we clean up we see how many water bottles we have consumed today...it was warm, but God was  cool.  As I take that cold shower later, I am restored and now very thankful for the cold water.

Thank you so very much Lord for a grace filled day.  You made my heart sing today and for that I can't thank you enough.