Modern-day Eutychus story!

This e-mail was sent to me by a friend of mine. I think you'll enjoy it.


Towards the end of the morning of our third day of STS training in Ollanta, in the Peruvian Amazon, with some 37 pastors, evangelists and leaders gathered for the training from up to 5 days canoe journey away, we heard a loud cry go up from three houses down. "Rene has fallen, Rene has fallen!" Within moments the room was empty and I was left wondering what we were going to do about a guy who had fallen through a floor onto disgusting, sewage-covered ground more than 6 feet below. We were 30 hours boat ride from the nearest hospital and there was no airstrip nor radio to call in help quicker. Rene had fallen hard and his ankles were in such a mess he could not bear his own weight and he had felt the top part of his spine shudder and felt intense pain in his neck. He could neither walk, nor sit nor lie down. As I made my way slowly over to the gathered group noisily praying round Rene, I felt the Lord said to me, "Tell the Eutychus story!" This is the story in Acts 20 of the man who fell 3 stories to his death when Paul was preaching one night. My middle daughter 'had' that story (of the 16 stories we as a family had prepared for this outreach), and so I asked her to tell it in Spanish, which she did immediately. After a good telling I asked a couple of questions referring to parts of the story as I did so. We saw that Paul was focused and un-fussed by the disruption and distraction of the young man Eutychus falling out a window and, that although, the man's life "was in him" he did not come in among the rest until hours later when Paul had spent the rest of the night talking with the disciples and then departed! I asked everyone to pray, hooking our faith in the story (His Word) and we went off to lunch, leaving Rene in the capable hands of two or three friends. Two hours after praying for him and when we were back in the workshop training, Rene walked in unaided and alone, with a big smile on his face, and was received back with loud shouts and whoops of praise as all the STS students saw the hand of God had been at work. It was easy to discuss later the next day the ways we can use stories in our lives - even in the most traumatic of life's situations!