Guatemala Crusades (continued-page 2)

by Gene and Jean Easley   

    EL PORVENIR (continued)

    What none of us knew was that the loudspeakers on the front of the church, which announce services and summon the people from their hidden farms and forested trails, were still sending the whole service, music and preaching included, through the countryside all around that community with great force.  Normally, the pastor would have turned off the loudspeakers before the service began.  But that evening, he forgot.  Even people who had not walked the road to the church heard the message about the Great White Throne!  

    The pastor told us later that the next day he began to have people come to him and ask him, "How can we be sure that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life?"  He was, of course, happy to help guide the people to the Lord.  He told us that several of the people that came to him did give their hearts to the Lord!  So, El Porvenir--both churched and un-churched--heard the call that night to be ready.  Praise God!       

    Guatemala City

    Another pastor was in Guatemala City, preaching in a church that had at one time been a non-Pentecostal church.  Some of the people had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, however, and wanted the church to be Pentecostal.  So they joined the Prince of Peace movement in Guatemala.  Other congregants, however, were not so happy to entertain Pentecost.  Unbeknown to us, the service we were to preach there was during a time of real conflict among the two groups of believers as to whether they would accept the Pentecostal experience fully or not.  

    When the service proceeded, the message the Lord laid on Bro. Easley's heart was regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and he gave his own testimony of a great revival in First Assembly of God Church in Tucson, AZ, when he was stationed in the Air Force there in 1965.  There was a great anointing on the service that day as Bro. Easley preached, and at the conclusion of the service, the people were lifting their hands and crying and worshipping in a wonderful way.  It was when we had lunch at the pastor's home afterward that we first understood that that was not the normal conduct of his people.  

    Pastor Flores said that there had recently been a great deal of resistance by some of the people to the Pentecostal message, but they had been praying for a breakthrough to come regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  That morning, he said, the very ones who had been the most resistant were the ones with hands lifted, tears streaming down their faces, and getting through to God.  He was thanking the Lord for the great breakthrough that had come in answer to their prayers.  

    Jalapa

    In a 1985 campaign Bro. Easley preached on a high plateau in the City of Jalapa, Guatemala (about 60 miles east of Guatemala City and over the mountains).  The testimony of the young man who pastored the Prince of Peace Church in that community has always been a blessing to us.  He began pastoring the church when he was fifteen years old.  When he was 16 years of age in 1976, the church was almost totally destroyed by the devastating Guatemala earthquake.  The destruction from that earthquake was far reaching with some 23,000 killed and one million Guatemalans left homeless.  This young preacher, as a 16-year-old boy, rebuilt the church from the great destruction, and when we preached there in 1985 had a thriving congregation.  

    Though his family was very poor and lived in a small, very primitive dwelling behind the church, the pastor willingly sacrificed for the Gospel.  The family had very few personal belongings, and the furnishings they did have were meager—an open fire on which to cook, no sanitation or running water and, certainly, no hot water.  Yet, in spite of his limited resources, this young man very happily paid for a daily radio program and was quick to relate how God was touching the lives of his community.  People were being healed, saved, and delivered, he said, through the broadcast of his program.  One day, while we were ministering in his church at a ministers' conference, the young pastor invited Bro. Easley to preach on the program.  As they walked several blocks to the station, the pastor related his excitement about what God was doing through it.  People were coming to his church after hearing the program, and many were being saved and healed.  This young pastor, and many others like him, was more than willing to make tremendous personal sacrifices to see the Gospel spread among his people.     

    Asequia

    This story concerns the healing miracle in Asequia.  Bro. Easley preached a three-day campaign in the little farming village of Asequia in 1985 for Pastor Adan Ramirez, and this was the first out-of-doors crusade that we preached in Guatemala.  The open-air meeting was held in front of a business in an open area; the church put up a platform and strung lights around the perimeter, and brought out chairs and benches and blankets for the people to sit on.  The music was loud and long and it seemed it took a long time for the leaders to put Bro. Easley on the platform to preach.  

    After the preaching, praying, and shaking hands with the people had concluded, a mother came up with her sick infant for prayer.  With the mother was a girl about 8 or 9 years of age.  We laid hands on the baby and asked for the Lord to heal him.  We did not know that this family lived next door to the church of the pastor for whom we were holding the crusade.

     The next morning, bright and early, the little girl appeared at the church compound where we had spent the night and wanted us to go home with her.  Our Spanish was not too good, but we understood her gestures to take us along well enough, and at her much pleading, we went.  When we got there, she brought the baby out and said that he was now completely well and praised the Lord for healing him!  We did too!  She wanted to say thank you for praying for her brother by presenting us with a little white confectionery made and sold by the poor in Guatemala.  She was so thrilled with the baby's healing, as was her mother, that we have never forgotten the little girl's reaction to it.  All these years later, we still remember the look of marvel on her face and her sweet kiss on ours.      

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