Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Story of Barbara


Some of you may know the story of how we met Barbara, but for those of you who don't, here it goes...

In July of 2007, we were setting up to do a show in Houston, TX. As Shannon and I were out in the lobby, a girl shyly walked through the door and came up to us. She looked a little familiar, but I could not place her. When she began speaking in her thick Spanish accent, I knew who it was. It was Barbara! Barbara had seen Brock on the Spanish Discovery Channel (The Miracles of Jesus that Brock was in) and then found us online. She had been commenting on our blogs for quite some time. She had the funniest comments because sometimes what she was trying to say would get lost in the translation. However, this was the first time that we met her in person. She had taken a bus all the way from her home in Mexico to see our show.

We immediately fell in love with her. At dinner after the show, Brock asked her how she had learned English so well. She said that she began going to Brock's blog and reading it everyday. At first, it took her an hour to translate the couple of paragraphs. Now, she was quicker at it. Brock said, "Are you meaning to tell me that you learned English by reading my blog?" Barbara smiled and said, "Yes."

What's cool is that the week after that, some people from the church in Houston where we had done the show that Barbara attended went on a mission trip to Barbara's small town in Mexico (the trip had been planned for months before that). They happened to be ministering a couple of blocks from Barbara's house. She ended up being a translator for them.

For me, my connection with Barbara began much earlier. In April of 2006, the Lord told me that He wanted me to give my Bible to someone. For a while after that, I took an extra Bible with me on the road just in case. Many of times I met someone that I thought was surely the person whom the Lord wanted me to give my Bible to, but He would always say, "No, not yet." After a while, I forgot about giving my Bible away, but I would every now and then pray for the person that the Lord had in mind for this. When I met Barbara face to face, I could hear the Lord saying, "She's the one. Barbara is the one I want you to give your Bible to." I wondered why the Lord told me that He wanted me to give my Bible away in April of the year before (over a year earlier). I later found out that was the same time that Barbara watched the Discovery Channel and found out about us. It was as if the Lord was letting me know that there was someone out there whom I needed to be praying for and would be very special in our lives. Special she is.

3 comments:

Haley said...

I'm jealous that Ryan got to meet her and I didn't!

Anonymous said...

I was so looking forward to Night of Joy and the chance to meet Barbara! I am just praying that God will provide another opportunity.

I am glad that she got to visit with you!

Love ya,
Mrs. G

Barbara said...

Auny, you made me cry.
You are soooooo special for me. i love you soooooo much and i miss you even more!
You are my family =)
Thank you for everything. I think i'll never get tired to say it.