miracle |mirikl| n.  a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.

I believe in miracles.

I was just in the new construction in the village of Bubieci.  Three teams labored with the church this fall, pouring walls and a ceiling.  For the first time ever, the church will have their own home.  I stood inside a miracle.

Yesterday I stood in the burned-out ruins of the church in Mihaileni Noi.  After three years of labor, they now have to start from scratch, rebuilding the roof before snow flies.  I stood on the site of a future miracle.

Today I will sit with Ala*, a young woman at the Home of Hope.  She is struggling to believe that she is worthy of God’s forgiveness and love. Yet her smiles and peaceful demeanor remind me of a HUGE miracle, a God-designed transformation.  Today I will be with an ongoing miracle.

I know there are cynics that can give explanations.  You can say people built the church in Bubuieci, not God.  You can’t explain the former drug-addict so changed by God’s grace that he gave 10 days in Moldova to work on that building..

You can explain Mihaileni as human endeavor, but it is hard to explain the hope and vision of fifty people who labored in cold weather, cleaning out burned out timbers, crying at the loss but determined to rebuild.  One pastor is a former drunk, changed ten years ago, now serving with joy rather than blood-shot eyes.

You absolutely cannot explain away a supernatural healing on Ala* and her baby months ago. The doctor told her the infection was impossible, that both she and the baby were at risk. The staff at the Home of Hope gathered with her, and twenty hours later, the doctor could not find any sign of infection…and a healthy baby is now born.

You are right.  A lot of the miracles take human involvement.  We have poured a lot of concrete in Bubuieci.  We have given finances to buy metal for a roof.  We have counseled and talked to the women and the Home of Hope.  There is a factor of God working through us.

Yet only God can do some miracles.  Ala’s* smile is a miracle—because I know that it reveals God’s healing of her heart.  Pastor Sasha’s church is a miracle—starting with Pastor Sasha, an agnostic-now-joy-filled believer.  And the rebuilding of the church in Mihaileni will be a miracle, beginning with the joy of the rebuilders.

Today, I hope you can give thanks to a God that does miracles.  Some of His miracles are done through us.  But the miracles of the heart are His alone.

Serving in Moldova.
Andy Raatz