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God Is Always In Control
August 26 2010 / ShareHim in Guatemala, Jul. 9 - Jul. 24 '10 #462by Dianaly Blas
Personal Testimony of Dianaly Blas.
My mission trip to Guatemala was an unforgettable experience. The two weeks before the trip were very difficult for me because I wanted to spend the summer with my friends and family. I thought to myself many ways that maybe I could avoid going on this trip. However, I thought how Gods plans are always better than ours.
So I left my house with that thought, believing that my presence in Guatemala was God’s will. So we arrived in Guatemala and being there, I still asked myself what was God’s purpose in my life. The first week passed and many of my peers had already shared with our group their experiences.
After listening to their great stories, I could not avoid feeling bad, since I did not have a wonderful experience to share with everyone. But it was not until the second week that God revealed to me what was his purpose. Little did I know that every single sermon that I was preaching to was specifically put there for me.
One night as I preached about the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church and how it all began, all of I sudden without even planning it, I began to express to everyone what it meant for me to be a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church and how proud I was to be part of God’s people. This may seem normal, but for me it was amazing. Why? Because even though since birth I have been Adventist, for the first time in my life I truly understood what it meant for me to be an Adventist. From that point and on I would no longer say that I was Adventist because that’s what my parents taught me since I was a child. I felt that now I could stand strong in what I believed in.
But God did not stop there. The second to last night something even more amazing happened! That night I could say was my best night, not because I say so, but because I felt the Holy Spirit at all times. I started to make the alter call and I felt like there was someone sitting down who really wanted to say yes to Jesus. I stood and words kept on coming out of my mouth. They were all words that came from the Holy Spirit. I made the alter call for about 15 minutes and no one came up. For the first time I did not feel bad to see that no one came up. I did the closing prayer and then headed out of church.
On my way out one of our visitors stopped me and asked to speak a few words with me. She told me that she was an ex-Adventist and that her husband was one of the deacons from our church. She confessed to me that while I was doing the alter call she was in her seat struggling to get up and accept the call that God was making her, but she couldn’t. She expressed how she felt and told me to not be disappointed because I had already planted a seed and she would continue to come to church and some day she would get baptized. At that moment I began to cry and cry. Not only did I cry to hear this lady tell me that I had planted a seed, but also because we have an awesome God.
All the time I thought that God was not doing his work and that maybe it was pointless for me to be there, but that night God showed me that he was there by my side since the beginning. That night I felt a peace in my heart to know that God had everything under control. As a result, the devil did not stay calm.
That same night around 2 A.M., I began to feel sick. I couldn’t sleep at all and had all kinds of feelings and a huge stomach ache. At 6 A.M., I went to go talk to our group leader and told her how bad I was feeling. I was in a lot of pain and worried because that same day was our last sermon and the baptisms were going to be done. I did not want to miss it for anything. Our entire group came into our leader’s room and prayed for me. I wasn’t feeling good at all but I got ready and headed to my assigned church ready to preach my last sermon. I knew that the pain was a lot but I did not want Satan to come out victorious in all of this. So I asked God for his help and stood in front of everyone for the last time and preached Gods word!
Once again God had been victorious. After all, this trip was a double blessing—a blessing for me and to others. I praise God and thank Him for the wonderful opportunity I had to preach His word and for believing and trusting me in doing His work. May God’s word be preached to the ends of the earth!
So I left my house with that thought, believing that my presence in Guatemala was God’s will. So we arrived in Guatemala and being there, I still asked myself what was God’s purpose in my life. The first week passed and many of my peers had already shared with our group their experiences.
After listening to their great stories, I could not avoid feeling bad, since I did not have a wonderful experience to share with everyone. But it was not until the second week that God revealed to me what was his purpose. Little did I know that every single sermon that I was preaching to was specifically put there for me.
One night as I preached about the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church and how it all began, all of I sudden without even planning it, I began to express to everyone what it meant for me to be a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church and how proud I was to be part of God’s people. This may seem normal, but for me it was amazing. Why? Because even though since birth I have been Adventist, for the first time in my life I truly understood what it meant for me to be an Adventist. From that point and on I would no longer say that I was Adventist because that’s what my parents taught me since I was a child. I felt that now I could stand strong in what I believed in.
But God did not stop there. The second to last night something even more amazing happened! That night I could say was my best night, not because I say so, but because I felt the Holy Spirit at all times. I started to make the alter call and I felt like there was someone sitting down who really wanted to say yes to Jesus. I stood and words kept on coming out of my mouth. They were all words that came from the Holy Spirit. I made the alter call for about 15 minutes and no one came up. For the first time I did not feel bad to see that no one came up. I did the closing prayer and then headed out of church.
On my way out one of our visitors stopped me and asked to speak a few words with me. She told me that she was an ex-Adventist and that her husband was one of the deacons from our church. She confessed to me that while I was doing the alter call she was in her seat struggling to get up and accept the call that God was making her, but she couldn’t. She expressed how she felt and told me to not be disappointed because I had already planted a seed and she would continue to come to church and some day she would get baptized. At that moment I began to cry and cry. Not only did I cry to hear this lady tell me that I had planted a seed, but also because we have an awesome God.
All the time I thought that God was not doing his work and that maybe it was pointless for me to be there, but that night God showed me that he was there by my side since the beginning. That night I felt a peace in my heart to know that God had everything under control. As a result, the devil did not stay calm.
That same night around 2 A.M., I began to feel sick. I couldn’t sleep at all and had all kinds of feelings and a huge stomach ache. At 6 A.M., I went to go talk to our group leader and told her how bad I was feeling. I was in a lot of pain and worried because that same day was our last sermon and the baptisms were going to be done. I did not want to miss it for anything. Our entire group came into our leader’s room and prayed for me. I wasn’t feeling good at all but I got ready and headed to my assigned church ready to preach my last sermon. I knew that the pain was a lot but I did not want Satan to come out victorious in all of this. So I asked God for his help and stood in front of everyone for the last time and preached Gods word!
Once again God had been victorious. After all, this trip was a double blessing—a blessing for me and to others. I praise God and thank Him for the wonderful opportunity I had to preach His word and for believing and trusting me in doing His work. May God’s word be preached to the ends of the earth!