We had gone out to evangelize. In the group it was me, brother Juan, and brother Manuel. The day began with us visiting a man named Francisco, and we spend about an hour with him. After we prayed with him and encouraged him with some passages of the Bible, we left and headed toward Crescencio’s home. But as we while we were on our way, we decided to stop in shortly and visit with brother Sebastian, who had recently had surgery.
And was while we were in his home that the torrential rains began to pour. We waited for it to pass for some time, but while we were waiting we realized that the water had started coming into the house. Brother Sebastian, who had just had surgery, grabbed a shovel and ran to try to shovel a ditch in front of the house to divert the water. But when Manuel, one of the brothers that was with us, saw what Sebastian was doing, he quickly told Sebastian to hand him the shovel and began digging.
So, while the heavy rain continued Manuel fought to diver the water away from the house. We began to worry that the water might also be reaching our houses, and we were worried for our families, so we decided to return to our homes. Up to this point there had already been two hours of torrential downpour.
Just before you get to the town where we live, there is a little town called Sauce. In order to get to the other side of the town you have cross a creek. But with all the rain, the creek had risen a lot. We had never seen a rain like this! When we got to Sauce, we couldn’t even see the path any longer. I was driving my motorcycle with Juan on the back, and Manuel was on another motorcycle. We could no longer use the motorcycles because of all the water, so we got down and begin to walk alongside them, trying to move them slowly beside us.
About 20 meters behind us there was a car that was stuck in the creek, and the water was almost entering into the cabin. The driver was calling out for us to help him. So, I turned off the motorcycle and along with the other men went to help push the car until he was free. When I went back and tried to start my motorcycle, it would no longer start. I had to leave it there.
When we were passing through the town of Sauce, we saw that there was a creek that had overflowed and was now entering in through the back of a family’s house and was coming out the front door. The water was rising more and more inside the house. The owner of the house started to break some of the walls in order to allow the water to leave, but it kept rising. So Juan and I, along with some of the children that were nearby, began to rescue some of their possessions so that the water wouldn’t carry them away.
The rain had now been coming down for four hours and it just kept coming. By 6 o’clock in the evening we were able to get all the things out of the home, and it was then that the rain began to subside. As we were saying goodbye to the man whose house had been flooded, we heard the people who had watched saying, “Those men really do read the Bible!” As we walked by one man in particular he stopped us and said, “You guys really do read the Bible!”
The next day in our Sunday service I shared this with the congregation and we decided to take an offering and supplies the family. And as we went into the town, some of the people who saw us said again, “You really do read the Bible!”
Beloved brothers and sisters, sometimes we find ourselves in difficult and dangerous situations, and even in those moments we must be ready to put into practice what we read in the Scriptures. That is how we will show others what we really are. The Lord strengthened us that day to be able to help even in those circumstances, and I give thanks to God for giving us the opportunity to do it.
Pray for this family that has been affected by the flooding, especially that God would give us ongoing opportunities to speak with them about the gospel.
