Like everyone you’ll ever meet, Ava had a backstory which bled into her daily life quietly, subconsciously.
She’d left Nicaragua in 2005 as a young woman, and even though Guatemala provided her a new life, a husband, and two children, there remained a pervasive hole. It wasn’t just the separation from home that caused this feeling, because even homesickness faded as her new surroundings replaced all she’d known. It was something deeper, as if something was missing.
If this “missing part” were a scar, Ava covered it by caring for her family. Life was far from easy. She and her husband did their best to provide for their young children day by day. In Ava’s world, daily survival was top priority, so when thoughts of home crept up, she pushed them down, and when sickness developed, she went to Clinica Ezell. Run by a Blessings International partner, Health Talents International, the clinic is a base for surgical teams and offers physical, mental, and spiritual care to members of the Boca Costa region of Guatemala.
Ava visited the clinic, where she was treated for her physical pain while being shown the love of Jesus Christ. Something about the medical staff and spiritual counselors irrevocably lined the hole that only seemed to be growing in Ava’s heart.
Daily deprioritizing her heart worked fine, until her husband committed suicide.
Once again, Ava’s entire existence was turned upside-down. The trauma was agonizing.In the night, when comfort seemed a world away and the hole seemed like an abyss, a single source of hope flickered in the depths of her thoughts. She recalled the evangelists at Clinica Ezell, Baldemar and Victor, who had spoken to her on her last visit. Whatever it was they had was real…and Ava wanted it. Needed it. Though it had been awhile since she’d been to the clinic, Ava made her way back and asked for Baldemar and Victor.
“I’m struggling,” she told them, the understatement of a lifetime. “I do not have any peace. I want God to be part of my life now.”
With large smiles, Baldemar and Victor invited Ava in to read what the Bible had to say about Jesus’ salvation and the peace He offers. A couple hours later, when Ava lifted her head from prayer, she was a new person. Peace shone from her eyes for the first time.
“I want to be baptized,” she announced. “In the river.”
“Right now?” they asked.
She nodded.
A small group of clinic staff and a multitude of rejoicing angels witnessed Ava’s simple, riverside baptism. When Ava left Clinica Ezell that day, there was no sign of the broken spirit she’d carried in earlier.
Ava’s hole was finally filled.
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