Yolanda

I spent the past eight hours at a Christian concert with some of the greatest bands and speakers in the country, yet the place that I felt the presence of God the most last night, was in a broken Spanish/English conversation in the bathroom. I don’t understand all of the details, but God is continuing to reveal Himself to me along the way...

I don't even know what made me stop and talk to her; the lady handing out paper towels for tips in the bathroom. It was just that she works so hard and I wanted to tell her. As we started talking, I realized that she spoke very little English. We spoke in Spanish and talked about how long the night was with 8 hours of concerts. She told me that her foot was hurting from all of the standing and cleaning that she had been doing. She talked to me about her kids and about the problems in her knee. She told me about the cancerous tumor that she’d had removed and showed me the scars on her stomach. Did you catch that? The woman in the bathroom told me about her fears and showed me the scars on her stomach.

As we talked, I asked her if she had faith. She said that she did and that her faith was in Jesus. I asked her if it would be okay if I prayed for her and her family. In my broken Spanish we prayed together, and I opened my eyes to hers filled with tears. In 15 minutes, I got to know the lady in the bathroom better than any person that I met that night.

You see, hours earlier I received a text from a friend saying this,

"How can you leave an eternal mark on the people you meet in the next two weeks?"

Tonight was the first night of what will be a 2 week long tour with a group of Christian bands. And to be honest, on a tour with famous Christian musicians, I definitely wasn't thinking about how I could leave an eternal mark on anybody. But my friend was challenging me to go deeper; to not just show up for work, but to see where God would have me share His spirit.

After Yolanda and I prayed together I returned to work and prayed that if I was supposed to help her in some other way, that I would know clearly. And then she came out into the lobby to find me and ask me a question. And through a conversation that I only kind of understood, God spoke to my spirit. The kind of speaking where you're standing in a room filled with thousands of people, yet your whole body is shaking; The Holy Spirit kind of shaking where you give freely to someone and know that you’re giving to God.

At the end of the night Yolanda came back out to tell me that after we prayed together, her foot started feeling better. She carried with her a pack of gum and with tears streaming down her face, put it in my hand and said thank you. I'm positive that no greater gift could have meant more.

At the end of the night I texted my friend this,

"So today, I walked into the presence of God when I met Yolanda, the Spanish speaking lady in the bathroom giving people paper towels for tips. ONLY because God called me to serve Him in México years ago, could I even communicate with her. His spirit was here with me so much that I can't stop shaking. Those whole body shivers when you know God is here. Tonight I pray that Yolanda felt the presence of God as well. She had been standing there for so long serving others, I just think that she needed someone to see her. And God equipped me years ago to be the one to walk in and have that conversation with her."


I felt the presence of God tonight when I met Yolanda. She works in the bathroom giving paper towels to concert goers for tips, and because of a calling that God put on my heart 15 hears ago, I could communicate with this Spanish only speaker. How ironic, that of all the bands and speakers here tonight, the one that touched me most was the lady handing out paper towels in the bathroom.


Will you say a prayer tonight for Yolanda and her family?