Impact 195 - Stories of Students

Dan Moriarty – Haiti * Rock University Core Team

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…" Ezekiel 36.26

“Step by step our feet were moving on the broken concrete and through the old overgrown plants lining the paths of the pregnancy ward.  We soon arrived in a courtyard where Haitian visitors were scattered all around.  From this point our group broke into sub-groups around the four walls of the courtyard.  As I wandered around with my camera bag I understood this wasn’t even a place suitable for photography – people in distress and pain and sorrow isn’t something to try and capture without at least asking permission.  Without that option available tI felt inadequate; I had come to Haiti with the sole purpose of gathering content for our media team.  I asked God ‘why have you brought me to this place?  Please open my heart and help me love these people… If I can’t capture the work, may I be a a part of it?’ I found my fellow world changer, John Cole, in a room I peered into minutes after this prayer.  He was speaking with a woman.  Her father was very ill and in the room too.  Blindness had overcome him.  As John translated I asked the man’s name and his relationship to the woman.  I asked other details regarding his life and love for God.  He was a man of great love for God.  This frail old man curled up in his bed in front of me.  Without sheets I could see a tube running out from under his gown filled with urine and blood.  He was hard of hearing, but I asked anyways if I could ask God to heal and comfort Him.  His skin was dry, his hair silver.  He processed the question, licking his lips and holding his daughter’s hands in his own shaking ones. He responded in a deep and unstable whisper, ‘I would be content’.  We laid hands on him and prayed to God. The man did not move nor open his eyes at all.  We said our good-byes and left the ward.  Many days later the daughter of the man came to our hotel and inquired for John and myself.  Ecstatic, she found us and told us the miracle that God had performed in her father’s body.  The bleeding had stopped the same hour we had prayed for him.  She continued to ask for prayer for five more things believing in God and His power through prayer!” 

Caroline Best – Haiti * Term 3 Day Class

"…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20.28

“We arrived in Port-au-Prince and were overwhelmed by the great need.  Tent villages & crumbled, dirty, grafitti’d buildings…the gutters and side of the roads were covered in trash and pigs and wild dogs were eating it… for some of us this was a our first missions trip…as we drove through the city we saw faces of those who were angry and needy… things got real somber for us.  But then God took us through a rainforest and mountains on our 10 hour bus ride to Jeremie and we marveled at God’s creation. The spirit of the team lifted.  We spent the next 7 days in Jeremie serving in orphanages, schools, hospitals and got to deliver food to needy families.   Some people worked every day doing back-breaking labor on a well project in an effort to start the clean drinking water distribution center. Days later we got to teach VBS… I remember this one little kid was so stoked to learn what rainbows meant!  There was another little boy – an orphan -  who wanted me to retell the story of Jesus in the boat.  I saw such a hunger for Jesus and a hard working spirit in him. These people and this country will always be in my prayers!”

Dave Brown – Asia * Rock University Core Team

As it is written it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witness to Me… Acts 1.7-8

“In one of the towns we visited there was a lame man sitting in the town square.  He had not been able to walk for two years.  Jenn and a couple of our world changers asked through a translator if they could wash his feet.   He agreed.  Gently they began to lift each foot and clean away the dust and grime from in between his toes.  Through a translator, they also began to share about Jesus and God’s great love for him.  A few moments later, he prayed to receive Christ as His lord and Savior!  We rejoiced and we began asking God through prayer to heal him.  I carry a small vile of oil with me, so I took that opportunity to anoint His head with oil.  We prayed believing that God could and would heal him as a sign of His power and great love for that man and that town.  After we said ‘Amen’, I helped the man to his feet and he began to walk! A lady standing nearby who had been watching the whole thing started to cry! Moments later she got saved too.  Children near by came as well as the town leader and gave their lives to Jesus.  It was such a beautiful display of God’s power and love and our world changers got to live out something many have only studied about in the book of Acts!  Not only did God do a miracle in that man's legs, but in His heart.  One day soon, we shall walk the streets of gold together.”

 

Anthony Valdivia – Asia * Rock University Intern

"…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." Daniel 11.32

“A life changing moment for me was when Tyler and I met an elderly man in a town.  We were invited back to his house where he served us tea.  With little time left and no translator wedecided to share the gospel with him in English.  The Holy Spirit was working and somehow the man knew what we were saying!  Tyler and  I both felt like he understood and it was confirmed when our translator caught up with us.  She asked if he knew what we had told him and he said yes!  She asked if he was ready to receive Christ as his savior and he again said yes!  This experience brought me to tears.  I have only heard stories of these kinds of things and felt so blessed to see it with my own eyes.  I feel closer to my Heavenly Father than I ever have.”

Lindsey Reedy – Asia * Rock University Term 2 Day Class

"Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." 1 Corinthians 8.1

“A certain town we visited was at the base of some mountains and the sun was beginning to set.  My group encountered an old woman carrying two full water buckets on a stick across a bridge. Through a translator she brought up the subject of Christianity in the US and then told us a group of Christians had visited her town five years ago and it was then that she got saved!  Our group felt led to share with her a vision that one of our team members had before we entered the town.  The vision showed the mountains as God’s hands encompassing the town with Jesus' light shining down upon it and Jesus was drawing the town closer to His heart.  As the vision was shared with her, she looked up at the mountains as if she really saw that and felt God’s love.  Her face was so surreal like out of a dream!  I began to cry that very moment.  It made me think of whether or not I see heaven on earth when I think of how much our Father loves us as His adopted children.  This woman lives in a small town with no running water and works in the field daily; she has to carry heavy buckets to water her crops.  But even still, she has this firm grasp on her Father’s love for her and His joy!  It opened my eyes to the fact that this old woman who by the world’s standards has very little, understands far more than I do about God, when I even have the luxury of learning more about Him in a program like IMPACT195.  She inspired me to take the head knowledge that I have about my Father and to really start experiencing Him in a new way!”