Faith over Fear

Yesterday I noticed two scorpions crawling around on the block pile near where I had set up the block saw. I warned the group at devotional last night to be careful when moving the block. This morning while laying out the block on the ground to cut the channel block, Egla, our interpreter was stung by a scorpion on her leg. Quickly, we all offered the best of the medicine we had from epi pen to pain relief cream to antihistamine. I overheard Egla respond that she would wait and see what happened and that she wanted to know what it would feel like. I was struck by her lack of fear, but knew she was a young lady of remarkable faith. I suspected her lack of fear was connected to that faith. Tonight at devotional Egla shared getting stung by the scorpion as her God moment. It seems she had been studying Romans in her private study time this morning and reading about the struggles of Paul as he wrote to the Romans, including a historical reference to Paul being bitten by a snake when he arrived in Rome. She shared that when she was stung by the scorpion, she felt connected to Paul and somehow knew that she was going to be alright. The pain of the sting failed to slow her down at all as she helped lay block, interpreted for us in our interactions with the Hondurans, and played with the children. How many times do we allow our simple fears to hinder our efforts to serve our Lord? Egla’s courage, attitude and faith shone brightly today and in her testimony tonight. -- Steve