Posted in True Missionary Stories

Manuel is one of our main church planters who lives just across the river in Duran. Recently he has been having to stand guard 24/7 in that his property is being invaded by squatters who are trying to possess his legally obtained properties. Manuel's dream is to use this property for badly needed social ministries amongst the poorest of the poor (medical clinic, lab, eye clinic, training center, trade school, etc.) Through massive corruption of local power brokers, he is having to stand all alone against hundreds of people who have already paid money to the brokers for Manuel's land. There is no police protection or legal recourse. The only way is to stand out front and turn people away. He is trying to maintain a Christian testimony but the corruption is so rampant.  It was beginning to look like he would lose all his hard worked for land and dreams to unscrupulous, greedy people.

My dh sent out an emergency SOS for prayer for Manuel. And, as we have come to expect, God answered.

Manuel called my dh a day or so after our SOS. He was all excited to report that God had sent him an ex-commando, a real foul-mouthed, fully-armed "Rambo" who for unknown reasons had decided to take on Manuel's case and defend his cause. He became Manuel's "best friend" and is standing guard 24/7 over the properties and threatens to blow off anyone's head that attempts to invade the "Lord's property!" While I admit such "answers to prayer" don't jive with my own personal theology, one has to admit, WE PRAYED; GOD ANSWERED. I am continuosly amazed at how often God responds to prayer not in the way expected, but often outside of the small box we have Him enclosed!

Manuel went on to say that the Lord had impressed upon him the Scripture in Romans "BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK..." So on Sunday they fed all the invaders sandwiches and colada (oat meal drink). Everyone was happy about that and assured Manuel they would leave his land alone and only invade the others around him! They went on to have an open-air evangelistic service and will begin a new outreach group with those interested.

If you are interested in reading about the other people we included in our SOS for prayer, you can do so here on my dh's blog. The answers to those prayers can be read here.

If you do go there, you will see that I have "borrowed" part of my dh's blog entries. For some other stories about Manuel, you can go here. He is a true servant of God and whenever he calls I always wonder what God has done now!