Mind of the Missionary
August 2019
In a recent conversation with Wes Jones, missionary for Mountain Development Ministries Honduras, he shared with me about a “miracle” that God just did there. I couldn’t keep it to myself and asked him to share it with us .
Let me begin by saying, “Thank you” for your support of the work that the Lord has called me to do in the village of San Matias, Honduras. I just returned from a 5 week trip there. I want to share a story with you about something that happened on my last trip.
We had an orthopedic team working at Hospital Escuela in the city of Tegucigalpa. On Monday night, the spine surgeon, Dr. Coyle, was late returning to the hotel because he had performed so many operations that day. He told the team about operating on a man that was in a motorcycle accident a month ago and had a broken neck. The man was paralyzed. The only thing he could do was barely shrug his shoulders, and he could not move his arms or legs. The doctor told the team that the only reason that he operated was because the bones in his neck were so unstable. Dr. Coyle even felt badly about operating because he knew the operation would not make him better, but it would prevent the bone fragments from shifting in his neck.
On Wednesday, our mountain team finished their projects for the day and headed up the mountain for outreach and distribution of large baskets of food. We give families food baskets and share the Gospel with them. This time, we traveled to the adjoining village of Macuelizo. When we came to the first adobe house, we were greeted by a lady and invited in. When we came in, there was a man laying in bed. I went over to him, and the Lord burdened my heart to kneel beside his little cot. I told him that we had come to share the love of Christ with them and prepared a food basket for his family. The man started to weep. He said he was a terrible man, a bad husband and father. Now, he cannot even provide for them anymore. He said he was hopeless. We shared the Gospel with him and told him how Jesus gives hope. I reached my hand over to him. and he grabbed mine with both of his. As he lay there weeping, he squeezed my hand and asked the Lord to save him. The presence of our Lord was so strong in that little dirt house. As I stood up to leave, the sheet moved away from his neck, and I saw a bandage. I asked him why he had a bandage on his neck. He told me he had surgery on Monday by “The North American with big hands.” I knew he was talking about Dr. Coyle, and I remembered what Dr. Coyle had said about him.
When I returned to the hotel that night, I spoke with Dr. Coyle. I told him that I had met the man he did surgery on Monday, and that he could move his arms and had tingling in his legs. Dr. Coyle said, “not the guy I operated on, he was paralyzed and all I did was stabilize the bone fragments.” I repeated it again and again, but he was emphatic that it could not be the same guy. I showed him a picture of the man, and his face went completely blank. He said, “That is a miracle from God because we did not do a single thing to heal him. We simply stabilized the bone fragments in his neck.” Tears filled both of our eyes, and he repeated, “This is a miracle from God!”
Never doubt that God is still in the miracle business! ”With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19.26)
Until next month,
Bro. Lyle