Yesterday was quite interesting to say the least. Rain fell in my town. So first, you must understand that the rainy season starts in late May or June. At times, a few rain drops can fall towards the end of April, but certainly not in February! So I must say the fact that it rained is amazing, a blessing, and indeed a manifestation of God’s answers to so many prayers and sacrifices. Allow me to explain.
I went to another town about 40 miles from my house to learn to make liquid soap with a couple of volunteers. I had planned this mini training for myself about a month ago because I plan to teach the mother’s association at my community house how to make it. So sadly, when a few of my community house girls asked me last week if I wanted to walk with them to a mountain and pray, I had to turn them down. One of the catholic sisters I work with very closely invited me as well, and I declined her invitation as well. Funny thing is, while I was 40 miles from my town I kept feeling rain droplets. When I mentioned it to one of the volunteers she insisted that it was a bird flying over me and peeing on me. Her husband said he felt a few of the drops, but I am not certain they were convinced that it was truly rain. When I returned to my town, the evidence was undeniable…there was puddles, and wet dirt everywhere…no rain, but a clear sign that rain had fallen and fallen hard.
As I have mentioned several times, there are a bunch of catholic holidays. Yesterday was yet another. I have no idea what it is called in English, but people call it Pelionage (if I spelled it right) in French. I am not certain of all of the ins and outs of the celebration, but I know that there were many people who woke up at 3 or 4am to walk between 4-15 miles (depending on where they lived in my town) to a mountain top where they prayed and gave thanks. I am a firm believer that God loves and favors those who believe, follow, and have faith in Him regardless of your religious affiliation. I feel certain that the rain fell because of the prayers of the people here and the sacrifices they made to walk so far despite their health or whatever may have been going on with them. It is amazing to see such a thing. Like I said, it was simply a manifestation of God’s love because I am certain there were answered prayers, healing, rejuvenation, and lives saved. For the rain to have fallen at this time of the year and also on this celebratory day, I can only attribute it to faith, and God’s tangible message that He hears and answers prayers.
I cannot explain how important this tangible message is for me right now in my life and in my faith walk. I am indeed at times weak, but growing. God is forever revealing Himself to me and others in so many different ways. I am sure some will try to explain this away with meteorology, and the science of weather. And I feel confident that the ideas they have will make scientific sense, but who is to say that God didn’t make the science that explains his manifestations? And so as I write this message to you, I encourage you and myself to stay firm, believe and be disciplined because God does indeed answer prayers. I do not know the stories of the people who sacrificed their time, energy, and physical strength, but I know that things changed for many, it did for me based on their faith. This is not a message to encourage you to become catholic, for I am not, nor to become protestant, or to ascribe to any particular religious sect. This message is for you and me to encourage us to get to know the true loving and living God for ourselves and to faithfully discipline ourselves to give thanks, to fast, and to pray. God hears us and will indeed answer our prayers. If we use the faith that we have, we can indeed move mountains…or make the rain fall.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Burkina Faso? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Burkina Faso in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez