THE FIRST THING I LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD

     It was 35 years ago and I was starting my very first mission in Mexico.  I KNEW I had a lot to learn but I soon learned a lesson that veteran missionaries know, especially those who have worked in remote areas.  I can assure you that Mexico had some VERY remote areas 35 years ago.  It was the fall of 1976.  I was establishing my very first mission in Mexico in a village that did not have a Gospel-preaching church and only a very few that knew how to be born again.
     A lady that had been a prostitute and had had a child out-ot-wedlock 12 years before had come to that village some years before and had married a man there.   Soon after the mission began they both received Christ as their personal Savior.  She could not read or write.  (Later she learned to read by reading the Bible.)  She became an ARDENT listener of the Word and simply believed it as she heard it.
     During a prayer service she asked for prayer that she could give her husband a son.  Her mother-in-law secretly told me the doctor had said she obviously could not concieve since it had been 12 years since her only pregnancy.  But, she continued to claim God's promises and prayed WITH unwavering faith.  No one had the heart to discourage her.
     One day she asked her mother-in-law to take her to the doctor to find out when the baby was due.  The mother-in-law decided the doctor would be the best one to explain her situation to her.  The mother-in-law waited while she went into the examiningroom.  Soon the doctor emerged and flatly stated the baby was due in six months!
     When she gave a testimony the next Sunday of what God had done for her we all hung our heads in shame.  Sure enough, six months later I walked into her humble home and saw her nursing a fine baby boy.
     Three years ago I had the privilege of again visiting that village and visited that young man and his own family.  His mother had gone to be with the Lord; but, he said she had told him numbers of time how he had come into the world.
     What did I learn?  Well, when simple people that cannot even read the Bible BUT, simply take God at His word, He does mighty things to SHOW  Himself to them.  I'm sorry to say, it often takes a mission field to have experiences like this.
     HMMMM I wonder what God could do if we only had that simple faith.  Or maybe He IS doing things right before our eyes but we chalk it up to other sources.  Bro Don