It all happened on a beautiful sunny Sunday in September of 1999. God showed us how He cares for what is His own. A few of us were working on the building project of the first chapel in Panama City, Panama. We worked hard that day as we were striving to complete the walls of the building.
We managed to lay the last three full rows of blocks around the walls. We wanted to do more, but by around 3:00pm, we noticed an unexpected heavy storm fast approaching. We could even hear its dinning sound even though the storm was still about two miles from where we were. It rains almost year round in Panama. Though it is a blessing for the country, we wanted no rain on that particular day of building.
On other occasions when I had worked on building things for other projects, I had experienced the rain upsetting at least two to three fresh rows of blocks. I knew what to expect this time, so I mentioned it to the brethren who were working with me. I knew that at least two of the three fresh rows of blocks would fall down.
We quickly pondered what would be the best way to cover the wall and protect it from damage. We finally settled on covering it with plastic tarps. As the storm thundered closer and closer, we realized we wouldn’t have enough tarp to cover the entire wall.
We were running out of time. The storm was only half a mile from us. There was but one thing left for us to do—pray. We went into the little storeroom within the building and, trusting in God, we knelt in earnest prayer. We placed God’s building back into His hands and prayed that the work we had done would not be destroyed by the storm. As we were praying we could hear the raindrops falling on the little storeroom roof. As our prayers ended, we went to the door to watch the storm.
We were amazed at what we saw. The rain was falling all around us, but it had left a 200 meters perimeter around the building. Only a few drops were falling upon our building project.
It rained for over an hour. The streets became rivers, but our building was dry. As soon as the storm passed, we went back into the storeroom to pray in thanksgiving. We had just watched God’s hands taking care of His cause, hearing our prayers, and quickly answering our supplications. To us, it was also an assurance of His realness. Our God, He does care!
"If we will but listen, God's created works will teach us precious lessons of obedience and trust. From the stars that in their trackless course through space, follow from age to age their appointed path, down to the minutest atom, the things of nature obey the Creator's will. And God cares for everything and sustains everything that he has created." — Christian Education, pg. 54
P.S. The ones working on the project were the following brethren: Bro. Francizco de A. Rodriguez, Bro. Gabriel Lopez D, Bro. Ignacio Paz, Bro. Daniel Gonzales and I.