Show me your stitches!

I'll explain the title in a minute. But here is another story in the extremes God uses to save a soul.

Luiza is 38 and looks 60 (sorry about that 60 year olds). She has had a rough life. Drugs, alcohol, physical and mental abuse, have all played their sordid roles in her short existence. Her religious hodgepodge has ranged from Catholicism to spiritism. She has had 10 kids in just 15 years, 7 in the last 9; all with a man who is married to someone else! She is illiterate.
To look at her you might say that she is a hopeless case. I did.

But just a few weeks ago God was urging me to visit her. “But Father ... (that is not usually a good way to begin a conversation with Sovereign God), Luiza is hopeless.”
He quickly reminded me in my daily Bible reading (He has done this a lot lately) of Isa 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.... “But Father (I'm a slow learner) she has been asked a 100 times and never comes! OK I'LL GO, but I think it's a waste of time!”

The Lord had begun to urge me to talk with her on Monday but I had stalled until Tuesday. That Monday her neighbor, Alenildes (don't even try to pronunce it), a member of our church had given Luiza a good talking to about the huge Mary statue Luiza had in her living room. Just after the conversation, for some reason the statue had tipped over and broken (1 Samuel 5 comes to mind here). Antonio, Luiza's “husband”, had gotten so mad that he threw the thing in the putrid little stream behind their “house” and raved as it floated away.

Tuesday I showed up wanting to talk about the Gospel. I was able to share with both Luiza and Antonio, whom I'd never met. It was a rather turbulent conversation but the seed was planted.
Flash forward a few weeks to Friday, July 25. Luiza's neighbor Alenildes has surgery on her “knee” and the ladies of the church have been put into action to provide meals for her family during her recuperation.

Monday, July 28, I had a stoke of creative genius in the kitchen. I guess that I was trying to prove that I could cook. I had been accused of surviving on foodstuffs such as: cookies, chips, pop, and popcorn if I was really ambitious.
Anyway, my inspiration had caused me to prepare: stroganoff (or however it is spelled), soup, sweet rice, and Brazilian pudding. I figured that I had enough grub to last a couple of weeks. But then God put a thought into my mind, “Take food to Alenildes.” “But Father....”
I called my coworker Dani, thinking that she was in charge of the food distribution. “We were only going to do it for three days. So, yesterday (Monday) was the last day.” A HA! I was right! I didn't need to take food to Alenildes!

“Take food to Alenildes.” What?! “Father we are not doing that anymore! It was only for three (3) days! They don't need the food anymore!”

“Take food to Alenildes.”

I decided to take the stroganoff (MAN, I really wanted to eat that myself!!).
With resolution, I marched down the street toward Alenildes house. Looking like a boob with a pressure cooker in my hands. As I got there she and her two daughters, Joice and Isis, were out front in conversation. Making small talk I asked, “Show me your stiches!”
Time froze (How often do I have to go through stuff like this!!!)! I could tell by the pale look on her face that it wasn't her knee that had been operated on! I could also feel myself shrinking into the dusty path that leads to her house. She had had a hysterectomy (remember that South West Airlines commercial slogan, “Wanna get away?”)! Are you seeing a pattern of seeming barriers to a clear presentation to the Gospel (A lady too poor and simple to hear. A hostile husband, an unwillingness to serve others, a huge conversational blunder. And there are two more coming)?

In my mind I was ready to go back home to start another batch of stroganoff. But we all had a good laugh at my expense and as we talked a bit more Luiza showed up.
“You are just the one I wanted to see!” She said to me. “ I was wondering if you could come and talk some more about the Bible with me and my husband? Today is his day off.”
How often have you gotten an invitation like that? I took it.

Tuesday night I showed up at the agreed to 7:00. Luiza was nowhere to be found and Antonio was already sawing logs. I asked Alenildes if she had seen her but she hadn't. We talked about a half an hour and I decided to make another visit. Just then Luiza showed up.

As the three of us entered her humble dwelling (imagin 9 kids in a 200 sq foot house, then add about 6 neighbor kids two or three dogs and a lot of peed bedsheets and you get a vivid picture of Luiza's world) she said “I really don't know how to begin a thing like this.” So I offered to begin with prayer.

We as Baptist like to show people from the Bible what they need to do to have a relationship with Christ. How do you do that with an illiterate person; especially one with a babe in arms and three other little demons jumping furiously on the couch and on her all during the “conversation”?

I prayed for calm and talked slowly as God gave it. I asked her what she already knew about God? “Not much... He created everything, right?” As we worked slowly from that point, repeating, and questioning to see if she was understanding, I could see that this visit wasn't going to work out. Too many distractions.

After about an hour I was ready to leave and let her think about what we had talked about. Alenildes wasn't. She began to share her testimony of how God was working in her life daily. She finally said, “Luiza, are you ready to make a decision for Jesus?” I was shocked to hear Luiza say, “Yes I am.” As she prayed to trust Christ I realized just how many of those previously mentioned barriers had been cleared to make this decision possible. I love it when a plan comes together! Pray for Luiza. She has a battle ahead but now she is on our side!