Mini Miracles

This week we have been witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s power. We sometimes can feel the Spirit’s quiet inner stirrings, but this past week the Holy Spirit came with purpose and power!

It started with a little thing… the location of English Mass was being changed for Holy Week because of the overlap with the Tetum services. For some reason it kept coming to Brendan’s mind that someone needed to give directions and give them well or many people would miss the Holy Week masses. So he prayed, “God, if you work it out, I will give directions to the people.” So for two days he worked out the best way to explain directions and continued to pray secretly, although he told no one of these thoughts.

Sunday arrived and a series of surprising events happened: for the first time some Timorese were helping organize parking (usually it’s a bit of a madhouse and all the internationals park everywhere and it’s difficult to get in and out). So we were guided onto the grass in a different area than where we usually park and then we went in the closest door, far from the door where we normally come in.

As we crossed the middle aisle, Fr. Peter was there and he came straight up to Brendan and out of nowhere asked if he would be willing to read the announcements…including the Mass times for Holy Week and the new location. Brendan was stunned, but hid his reaction quickly and agreed to do the announcements at the end of Mass.

Everything went well and after Communion Brendan walked up to give the announcement. It was great! There were many things to say, but he didn’t look at the paper. He had everyone’s attention and explained the directions perfectly! And this is harder than it sounds - Dili is a city with few street identifications (most aren’t named or numbered) and it’s easy to miss places when you’re driving there. Only on the drive home did Brendan tell me what had been going on during the past couple of days.

This is one example of God quietly, but effectively, working for the good of those He loves. Maybe for the good of just one person he coordinated everything, using Brendan to help that person get to Mass and experience Him and His grace.

But the next miracle was on a much more important topic and has floored me. On Saturday we had a Bible study lunch at our house to say goodbye to Iwuozo, the coordinator, before he went home to Nigeria. So we had lunch first and we got to try African food for the first time. Mary made some rice balls and two types of fish with different sauces. But during lunch the conversation turned to some politics and religion and Iwuozo was saying he didn’t think abortion was a big deal. Mary, who has a daughter who lives in America, tried to explain the facts that Iwuouzo doesn’t know because Nigeria hasn’t legalized abortion yet, although there is pressure on them to do so.

The subject was dropped when we went into our Bible study, where we finished up Genesis with the story of Joseph. That Bible study was especially moving and we had some very personal sharing. At the end we all prayed over Iwuozo, for a good trip back with his unit and that God will continue to use him in Nigeria. After prayer we all promised to see him off at the airport on Tuesday.

Within the next twenty-four hours after Bible study, the Holy Spirit pulled off a lot, but we didn’t find out until Tuesday. All I knew was that Saturday I prayed about the lunch discussion and was deeply disturbed, because Iwuozo is rock solid and Biblically backed up on every other issue. On Saturday night I went to sleep sad and thoughtful. On Sunday morning I woke up earlier than usually and felt a command to write him a letter because he honestly didn’t know what goes on, like far too many people. So for an hour I poured out my heart on the paper - of the facts of the sheer number of unborn children who are killed in America each year by abortion (more than 1,200,000 – more than the entire population of East Timor), of the women that are wounded emotionally and physically, and of my experience volunteering at Birthrite, a crisis pregnancy clinic in Ames.

On Tuesday, the day he was leaving, I knew I had to give him the letter, so we went to his house. He said that he had something important to tell us. When we made it to his house, he took us aside and said that something had happened to him on Saturday night. When he made it home and went to sleep he had a dream.

In the dream he was standing beside a giant body of water, an ocean, but it was dark water and filled with bodies floating face down, covering the entire surface. There were many giant pipes that were pouring into this ocean, flushing, constantly flushing, babies into this water. And all at once a young woman was standing there with him. She said to him, “Iwuozo, you must save these babies!” He ran to the water and tried to pick up the babies and hold them in his arms, but they were all dead. And it came to him that these were the bodies of the babies that had been destroyed by abortion – enough babies to fill an ocean. He woke up horrified.

After he related his dream to us, he said that God had revealed to him the importance of the abortion issue and just how big it is. I started tearing up just from seeing evidence that the Holy Spirit still works in miraculous ways and because Iwuozo didn’t even know about my letter yet. I pulled it out and explained that on Sunday I had felt the Spirit urging me to write him a letter about this very issue. He took the letter and said that when he got back to Nigeria he was going to talk to his friend to get the story of what happened on the Nigerian radio. Please pray for this mini miracle to have a far-reaching impact and save women and babies from the pain of abortion.

But there is even more. Also after Bible study, Mary had been praying and felt that she should get together information about abortion for Iwuozo to read on the plane and pray about the issue more. We found out later that she showed up at the airport and gave him this information also. So within twenty-four hours the Holy Spirit worked in three of our lives to hopefully have a lasting positive impact not just on Iwuozo, but on many more people.

So believe that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world! He truly is “the helper” that Jesus promised He would send to us after He was gone. Some dreams still have meanings and miracles happen everyday if we really open ourselves to God and we have our spiritual eyes open to see the results.

But this experience has really had gotten to me. Before I knew that the Holy Spirit is still around and I’ve seen some crazy cool things at charismatic meetings, but how quickly I forget the power and reality of the Holy Spirit. This was a great example for me that the Holy Spirit will keep us solid in our ideals and with God if we are open. But I think the key is that we are really open. Iwuozo has dedicated himself 100% to God. In East Timor his priority has been #1 God and supporting people in their faith, with work being a necessary 2nd that is to be done and done well. That is why I believe that he was given a dream to let him know right away the Truth in this area. I can only hope that Brendan and I will be that close and open to God that if we get off track, He would intervene immediately, even with a dream.

Praise God that He works in our lives in a real and intimate way to keep us close to Him! I pray that today we will all be open to the Holy Spirit and with eyes open to see God-caused “coincidences.”

God bless,
Rachel and Brendan