Saturday, March 31, 2012

What God spoke to me in the Dominican Republic

This was my fifth trip to the Dominican Republic. I have been going there since July 2007 on medical missions. God has always seemed to have some words for me there when I go. I try to listen to see what He was wanting to speak to my spirit. This time was no different. As soon as I got on the plane in Miami to Santo Domingo He started to speak. This time I sat next to a nurse. She was also on her way to Santo Domingo on a medical mission trip as well. She was meeting a group there to minister to the people in prison there. She was an older lady. Old enough to be my Mom. God always seems to put a mom figure in my life some way or another. Since I don't have the best relationship with mine. This lady was very kind and very sweet. As we talked she told me she had just gotten through with her chemo just before this trip. She told me she had stage four bone cancer. That is was just in the bones and not in the lymph nodes yet. I was amazed that she was going on a mission trip to a different country just after having chemo. What a brave women. As I spoke more to her her faith just shown through. That she believed that God was calling her to go. At one point she stopped and said "oh I have to take my medcations. I am so embarssed because there are so many I have to take." I told her I did not mind. That I understood. But you could tell she did not like taking them in front of me. After that I asked her if I could pray for her. She said yes I could. I explained to her that I believed God that could heal. I told her that I was also invloved in a minstry that believed that God can and still does heal. She told me that in the past she had been on mission trip to Haiti and had seen people healed there. She said that she seen someone pray for a women who had been in a coma for quite sometime. And after they prayed she woke up and wanted to eat.
She said I do believe in healing. 
 I went ahead and told her that I was Catholic. She was Baptist. But it did not seem to matter to her. So I went ahead and prayed for God to bring healing to her. We prayed right there on the plane. Just very quietly. Then she just held my hand. After praying for her she got my information and said that she would contact me after she got back from the trip.
So after I got back I received and email from her. She said that the whole week in the Dominican she had enough strength to do her part with out any help from anyone. I believe God gave her the supernatural strength to do what she needed to do there. And I just got word that there has been no activity with her cancer. Her test are showing no activity! Praise God. What an awesome God we have!
I am just amazed that God would sit me next to someone else going on a mission trip to the Dominican when there were so many Dominican's on the plane I could of set next to. I believe it was a divine appointment. I am continuing to pray for her.

One of the other things God did while I was there was to let Me know that His Mother Mary was with me. So how did God let me know this? Well when I opened my suit case with the Vacation bible school stuff in it there was a miraculous medal that I had bought sometime ago sitting right on top of my stuff. Now I know that I had bought this medal. I did not remember where I had put it though. There was also twenty one cents sitting right next to it. I felt like God was reminding me of Psalm 121.
Psalm 121

1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.
 
He has always given that Psalm to me when I have gone to the Dominican. But these items should had been at the bottom of my suitcase. They were small and the suit case had been tumbled around and gone through customs. They should have been at the bottom. But they weren't. I really believe God was letting me know His Mother was there with me. And this would not be the only time that He would let me know that.
The next morning devotion time was about the beatitudes. God had always given me Matthew 5:8. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." So I feel God was talking to me here again. And I have researched this scripture many times. To figure out what God was trying to tell me. Who are the pure in heart? What does it mean to have a pure heart? These are questions I constantly ask myself. I constantly have this scripture on my mind.
 
 Another way God let me know that Mary was with me was that on our way to one of the Clinic's I saw I huge sign that said MARY all in capital letter's. It was at fruit market I believe. Probably the persons name who owned it or something. But what I felt was God letting me again know that MARY was with me. I just kinda smiled when I seen her name.
The next day on the way to another clinic I was praying the Rosary. I was listening to it on my mp3 player. I was with a Baptist group so I did not want to offend them by me praying this out loud. I really felt I had to respect their beliefs. But I still prayed it silently. Right after I got through praying the Rosary I noticed a car pulled right in front of with a picture of the Rosary on the back of it. Again another reminder that Mary is with me. The small circle on the back of the car was the picture of the Rosary.

On the last night there when went to eat in one of the church member's homes. We divided up into groups and we were assigned which house we would be eating at. My group was the last group to get dropped off. It was a very difficult road to get down with our huge bus. Just a rock road with lots of holes in it. Lots of dips and hills. It was pouring down raining that night. We finally got to as far as we could go down the road. We had to park the bus beacuse it would not fit the rest of the way. So we got out in the rain, mud and the darkness and walked a good ways to the peoples house. I had flip flops on. Not the shoes you want to wear in the rain and mud! And no umbrella either. We were just not prepared at all. And  I could hardly see where we were going. We finally reach the house. And the family was so glad to have us. They had no electricity. So we ate by candle light. The father of the family had gone in the pouring rain to find us cokes to drink. You can not drink the water there. They fixed a very nice meal for us. Dominican spaghetti. It was fixed with corn and olives. And we also had fried plantains. When I got in the house I noticed a picture of a tree on their back wall. One of the girls with us had a necklace on that was an olive tree. I had asked her about this necklace a couple of days prior. She said that it represented her favorite verse Psalm 52:8 "But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God's unfailing love."
So when we both noticed the picture of the tree in their house we both knew we were suppose to be at this home eating with these people. I also have a huge olive tree in my back yard covering my house. I really felt God speaking to us with the olive tree. And the picture in their house really looks like drawing of a olive tree!
Our last devotion night that we had we just did some popcorn sharing. Just about what God had done or spoken to us while we were there. One of the young men shared a scripture that he had read that week. It was Psalm 20. This was interesting that he shared this particular Psalm. For quite sometime now  I have been praying about a certain situation. I had been praying about not having the support that I need with something in my life. And in this Psalm verse 2 speaks about having support from Zion! Amazing. It was the exact words I have been praying to God. Also the day before I left My husband had a dream about taking me to the airport. He dreamed I was riding a horse and the airport people would not let me take my horse. And I said "but I love my horse it is my pet." I was baffled at this dream. I was asking God all week what it meant. Well verse 7 in the Psalm speaks about "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God!" Wow. I now know what God was telling me. To just trust him with all my concerns. All that I have been praying about. What an amazing God we have. He know the details of our lives. I was so overwhelmed at what God had spoke to me here. From a young college student. I told him that God had used him to speak to me. He just had a smile on his face. This was an amazing trip for me. God spoke so much to me. I will never forget it.

             Psalm 20
20 May the Lord (A)answer you in the day of trouble!
    May (B)the name of the God of Jacob (C)protect you!
May he send you help from (D)the sanctuary
    and give you support from (E)Zion!

May he (F)remember all your offerings
    and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
May he (G)grant you your heart's desire
    and fulfill all your plans!
May we shout for joy over (H)your salvation,
    and in the name of our God set up our (I)banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
    he will answer him from his holy heaven
    with (J)the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in (K)chariots and some in (L)horses,
    (M)but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

They collapse and fall,
    but we rise and stand upright.
Lord, save (N)the king!
    May he answer us when we call.