Honduras Stories: God Enables the Called
{Spoiler Alert}
Manuel and his wife both baptized! Glory to God!
A handful on months after I had first begun my time in Honduras (December of 2018), a church we worked with in Gracias went to the Hot Springs to do baptisms. It was a marvelous day, the pastor of the church even baptized his own 2 sons and daughter! As well as that happening, the missionary that was training me came up to me and said, “Josh, the Holy Spirit is telling me to tell you to talk to that guy,” and he pointed to a church member I didn’t know. After he told me this, I decided to “reason” my way out of talking to the man with the thought, “I don’t know enough Spanish yet to talk to that guy.” Luckily, God was gracious and gave me a second chance to talk to the man.
The man approached me with no greeting, no handshake, and he just outright said to me, “I am not ready to be baptized yet.” There was no confusing the divine organization of this Gospel conversation, and I remembered when Jesus sent out His disciples and told them that the Spirit would give them words when they needed them (Luke 12:12). I prayed, apologizing for not being obedient at first and asking God to give me words. Our conversation began and God gave me words. I did the best I could to explain the Gospel and how Jesus saves us if we truly believe in Him. At the end, Manuel told me that he still wasn’t ready, but I experienced a valuable lesson that day. God enables those He calls to do whatever it is He calls them to do.
The story doesn’t end there. With some time, a student of mine who attended the same church found out that Manuel couldn’t read and asked me to come along with him to help teach Manuel to read. I was still learning to speak in Spanish and was not capable of teaching someone to read in Spanish, but I went along and helped my student. We didn’t know where to start, so we just had Manuel memorize a Bible verse and learn the sounds of the letters. Some other students would come and help, as this became a weekly routine. After a few months, Manuel was reading slowly and with many pauses, but he was reading! Not only that, but he began to ask many questions about the verses that we were reading and then about the Bible as a whole. After a full year had passed from our first encounter, I went to Manuel’s house one Saturday in December of 2019 with a student and friend named Allan. We went in the house, sat down for our normal chat, and Manuel told us, “I am ready to be baptized now.” Allan had come along many times by now and was excited to translate the message to me. I responded asking Manuel, “Are you sure?” After some questions discussion I asked him straightforward, “Manuel, a year ago you told me that you weren’t ready to be baptized. What changed?” I wanted to avoid saying, “Do you believe this?” questions where it gives him the answer, I wanted to see what he thought indicated the need to be baptized. Manuel’s response was nothing short of the Gospel and how he was done living for the world and now lived for Jesus. He wanted the world to know that he chooses Jesus and so he needed to be baptized.
I was not able to have the first conversation in Spanish, but God gave me words. I was not able to teach Manuel how to read, but a servant-hearted group of my students were. I was not able to ask Manuel the important questions about his need to be baptized, but Allan was. Manuel was not able to read, but now he can. God is a God of empowerment and a God who calls us to leap out on faith. He is also a God who responds powerfully to those leaps of faith. It was a long process, and not easy, but we ended up baptizing Manuel and he is faithfully seeking God. He reads his Bible, he attends his church, and God empowered the whole process and group for that to happen. Nothing is impossible for God. He enables the called to do His Kingdom work and live Kingdom-called lives.
