God wants us to meet His children. Our brothers & sisters. To grow disciples of all nations. Of all ages. & when His children get to meet; our Father rejoices. He reveals things, His children begin to learn from each other. & it can be the sweetest, most divine meeting that was set up by our maker. 

An old man approached the coffee shop standing at the entryway. While I was sitting outside at a table with my squad leader, Hannah; she notices him standing there, & gestures at him. I see his reflection in the window & turn around to meet the eyes of this little old man in a pirate hat with a skinny feather poking out from top. His face is lit with joy as we exclaim “Hola!”. He began to compliment us, saying we were young & intelligent and that he is just some old man. He was asking us where we were from and how we were doing. Just a normal, surface level conversation. The conversation started to slowly die off until he spoke the words “God bless,” as he was starting to back away. 

“God bless”

Hannah’s eyes lit up as she boldly said  “wait! Do you know Jesus?” Here in Bocas I’ve noticed that when someone mentions the Lord in any way they are eager for conversation. When they hear we are missionaries they wanna know more. So we took the chance to get to know his story. We asked questions. Asking about Jesus. How he found Him. What Jesus means to him.  

“I was a bad man & then I met God” 

He then proceeded to tell of how he was diagnosed with cancer, and that is when He began to know the Lord. Talking on & on about how he is a Christian and how Jesus fixed his heart. He removed his pirate hat mentioning that he has been through chemo & that the cancer is still in his body.

“My cancer is no problem because God made my soul clean.” 

Every word that came from his mouth was a praise to the Lord. As the conversation came to a close; I was able to pray over him. To speak truth over him & give him the reminder that God never stops moving. I sealed the prayer with an “amen” , said our goodbyes & just like that; he was gone. Probably won’t see him again, but I am overjoyed with the opportunity I had this time. I could feel the spirit right there as he spoke with confidence...

“Because of God I have peace” 

He said the exact truth that I needed to hear that day, and had no idea. My entire race God has been refining my heart and giving me an abundance of peace that I just didn’t know was possible. Then hearing this man speak of how the Lord cleansing his heart is the biggest thing that he clings to. He had no idea what the heck was happening in my life. I was just some girl at a coffee shop that prayed for him as he waited for his water. He was simply telling us His story and I listened. It was such a positive reminder of how someone we don’t know can be such an encouragement to us and our walk with Christ. How someone I thought I was “supposed” to encourage, ended up encouraging me.

& to think it all started with a “God bless.”