What a day. Gracias a Jesus. What a day.

You are never going to believe the day I've had. Let me preface it by saying that last night I had been listening to the Christmas carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and the last two verses of the song were really speaking to me. The third verse is about how the guy in the song was in despair because he looks around and all he sees is hate and cruelty. I have sort of felt like that lately...not completely hopeless, but just that I've been in this slow time of not really sensing God working in my life. But anyway the next verse of the song says, "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor does he sleep, the wrong will fail, the right prevail, with peace on Earth, good will to men." For some reason last night, I was really into that "God is not dead nor does he sleep" part. No matter what I might think, God IS working and he has NOT forgotten about me. And then today he gave me a beautiful, most-needed gift that showed me exactly how "WITH US" God is. Here's the story. It's long, but worth reading. Trust me.

It all started this morning at church when Pastor Pete was teaching about salvation. I was translating as much as I could for Miguel who of course was with me. At the end, we were singing the song "Majesty" and I noticed that Miguel wasn't standing up with us. I looked over to see what he was doing and he was writing something on a piece of paper. This is what he wrote:

"Muchas gracias, Jesus, por todo." Thank you, Jesus, for everything. He smiled at me and I leaned over and added, "y por salvarme" which means "and for saving me." He immediately crossed out "me" on the end of salvar and wrote "nos" to make it "salvarnos" which means for saving US. He smiled at me again and we went back to singing.

After church, we were invited to lunch by a woman from Peru who speaks spanish. She just loves Miguel and calls him Miguelito. Her name is Malena. She is a small grandmotherly type woman who is just so kind and loving. So we went to her house for lunch. At her house she had a big Christmas tree and about 10 presents under it. Miguel told me, sadly, that his family can't get a Christmas tree this year because it's too expensive. He kept touching her tree and whispering "Que bonito, que bonito" meaning like "how beautiful, how beautiful". Then he said to me, "Look at all her presents! There's lots of presents!" I said, "Yes, and you're going to get lots of presents for Christmas too." (Because I know he is!) And then he looked down sadly at the floor and shook his head saying, "No I'm not. I don't have a tree. Santa Claus won't come without a tree." Well I went to tell Malena what he said and it broke her heart as much as it broke mine. She said (without him knowing), "Let's pray for a tree for him." So we did. And at the end she clapped her hands together and said, "Okay he's getting a tree!" I was like, "Hahaha yeah right. I wish it always worked like that." She said, "No, he is. We asked, and God will come through." I just kind of shrugged and smiled.

So THEN...after lunch...Malena came with us over to Miguel's house to meet Miguel's mom. They talked for about 15 minutes and then Malena asked her about her relationship with Christ. Then she started telling her the gospel, all about the glory and promises of God and tears started falling down Miguel's mom's face. Finally Malena asked her if she wanted to accept Jesus into her heart right then. She nodded yes and we all prayed together, including Miguel. She repeated a prayer to accept Jesus and then gave us big hugs, thanking us for everything we're doing for her family.

There was a Christmas party for the youth group tonight at church so Miguel and I asked if he could go to it. He was SO excited. He kept saying, "It's going to be so much fun! We're going to play games and open presents and have fun!!!" At the party they played a fun game where there were 4 teams and the teams had to decorate one kid on the team like a Christmas tree. It was hilarious. Miguel's team picked Miguel to be the tree! I took pictures, which I'll add later! Well one of the youth leaders thought Miguel was definitely the cutest tree of all of them and I laughed saying, "You know I think this means a lot to him that he got to be the tree for his team," and then I proceeded to tell her about what he said about not having a Christmas tree and Santa Claus not coming. I had not told ANYONE else but Malena that he said this. Well the woman said, "Really??? I have a Christmas tree at my house that I don't need and I've been trying to give it to somebody but nobody needs one." I stared at her. "What kind of a Christmas tree?" I said quietly. She pointed at the church Christmas tree, "Like that one. A normal Christmas tree. Do you think he wants it?" And I'm sure Malena would have said to me at that point, "Why are you surprised? I told you God would give him a tree!"

SO THEN....no the story's not over yet. If you're not crying yet, just wait...So then after the party we had to go BACK to Malena's house to pick up a box of stuff for Miguel's family that she was getting together. So we did. There, we told Malena about the Christmas tree and she was so happy for Miguel! He sat down on the sofa and she asked him if he understood what happened with his mom this afternoon. He said he thought so. She talked to him a little about it and then asked him if had Jesus in his heart too. He said yes and she asked him to tell her about it, like when did he accept Christ, where was he, all the juicy details that make testimonies so great. He said, "Today. At the end of church I believed, and then I prayed with you at our house." Malena looked at me and I at her. We both looked at him and said, "REALLY?????" at the same time. He smiled and we gave him a big hug and told him how happy we were. Then she talked to him about Jesus and what believing in him means and what it doesn't mean. She told him that Jesus doesn't promise that he'll never have problems and difficulties, but he promises to never leave him and to help him through anything. For about 20 minutes Malena talked and Miguel just sat on the sofa, never taking his eyes off her, smiling with the biggest, most content smile you've ever seen.

So Miguel and his mom accepted Christ today AND God threw in the Christmas tree, just because he could.

Porque para Dios no hay nada imposible! Lucas 1:37