Praying for Pat

Spent the past few days praying for Pat Pike.  He is a friend of mine from K2 who adores Honduras and the kids here as much as I do.  Jairo and I both have the same feeling that everything will be okay in the end, but right now my friend is really struggling.  He is in ICU with tubes in his stomach and nose.  His bowels are not working and they can't figure out what is wrong.

Today all of the kids at the Breakfast Program got on their knees and prayed for Pat.  It was beautiful hearing their prayers.  We knelt in a circle, holding hands.  We prayed for at least a half hour.  Even Elvin, my most active preschooler, prayed diligently.  Both Lourdes and I praised him afterward because he has such a hard time being still.

Elvin praying for Pat

After the Breakfast Program was over Lourdes had her discipleship group.  The ladies are all from Los Pinos, the community across the street.  Their kids all attend the breakfast program.  Lourdes invited me to pray for Pat with them.

Lourdes prayed first.  Her prayer is always beautiful.  In Honduras when someone is praying you hear the sound of "S" from others around you.  The first time I visited it took me a while to understand, and then to get used to.  When someone says something that you agree with you say, "Si" or "Si, Senor" (Yes God).  Sometimes people even go off on their own little tangent while another person is praying out loud, but it is not distracting.  To me, it makes the prayer feel more powerful.

Lourdes prayed first, then I prayed.  I started out in Spanish.  With the kids I always pray in Spanish, but it is not easy for me.  My friend, Marlin, who is a part of the group said she understands because prayer is so much about what you are feeling at that moment.  It takes away from the moment to have to stop and think about conjugating verbs correctly.  So this time my prayer changed to English half way through.  Marlin prayed after me.

Marlin and I have had an instant and mutually heartfelt connection since the first time we met.  She was the first new person who sat down and talked to me when I came to Honduras in March.  (Looking back, I think this was the hand of God, because she is very shy.)  Marlin is a very close and special friend.  Her kids are incredible at prayer.  Now I know why.  She is passionate and hypnotizing when she prays.  It was awesome.  But something strange happened.  Marlin does not speak any English at all, yet we were both moved to use some of the same exact, very specific words.  For example, I prayed in English and she in Spanish, that Pat would rise from his bed with a smile.  There was no way she could have understood that I had just said the same thing.  God was clearly with us in that group.