May you all be blessed!
So, in this journal entry, I’m going to share with you some of the things that happened in Medjugorje.
Because of my ESTA Visa which had a limit of a three-month stay in the United States of America, time was drawing close when I would have to leave but I still had some two more weeks left. So, I was okay, I was not bothered by it. But because of the new border laws and because of the restrictions—the travel restrictions because of the…you know, the plague we’re dealing with—I had to leave earlier. The change came so suddenly, and Mother Elisha so caught up in making the preparations for me as to where I would go and where I would stay. And yet, again, dealing with the struggles of buying my ticket—the companies and so forth. We had settled that maybe I’m going to go to Romania. But Papa Ezekiel came in the scene, and he said, “Maybe you should go to Medjugorje. And so, it was settled. In the end, I went to Medjugorje for six days.
But it’s interesting because on the Sunday, before I found out that I was supposed to be leaving, on that Sunday meeting we had, the Lord said, through a Rhema, “Prepare your mind for heaven”. And yet another one said, “You will be with me in paradise”. It made me wonder, I’m like, what is this all about? Later on, it figures out that it was the heaven that he had prepared for me up in the few weeks ahead. And another interesting part is that as I was going to the airport, in the Lyft car, the Lord kept playing—the person had the worship songs on the radio—and the Lord kept playing on that radio, songs about suffering, about a storm, struggles—but about His faithfulness in all of that. And they kept coming, coming, and coming, those warnings about sufferings. They were so constant, but the uncertainty of what it was all about and all the unknown suffering, yet again, made me frustrated as He kept on telling me about them. It caused me to fret in my wonderment, what this could be this time. Will it be the airplane, the tickets, would it be the borders again? I had to lay it down, though, because it was stressing me out.
But no, it wasn’t as I was thinking, because my trip to Medjugorje was well. And when I saw that it was well, I thought, okay, so, the sufferings were not about my way to Medjugorje. Hmmm, is it going to be on my way back? I had a feeling it’s going to be on my way back, suspecting that might happen. In this whole stay in Medjugorje, it was truly something else. Not only to humble me and to gain further knowledge of myself, but also of the change and of surrender to the care of Mama Mary.
The days went by fast and soon I had to go back to the United States of America. And the Lord and Blessed Mother had it all set up and ready for something new the whole way back. But here, his warnings and His reassuring words in suffering began to come to pass. Yes, as I was suspecting, the storm was all about my way back to America
Walking up at 4 or 5 am, I took the chance to tend to all the needs that I had in prayer, and at 8 am I left the hotel room completely and headed off to do my Covid test. After doing it, I needed a printer and headed off to find some place because I could not use their printer. And plus, their system shut down. They had an issue with it right after I did the test. So, I went elsewhere. Eventually I found a place and printed out my bus ticket and stayed nearby. It was raining the whole day. I waited there under that shelter for my Covid test results. I stood there in one place from 10 in the morning until 4 pm. Passing by were many people. Some asking if I needed help because they saw that time was passing by and I was still in the same place. So, they were wondering, what is this all about? In this waiting, some the challenges came to me. A man saw me and turned to me asking if I am a sister. Affirming that, he engages a short dialog and soon tells me to pray for him and his family for God’s will on his path.
Interesting, I thought. Now that’s something rare with me [Laugh] speaking openly with people — the [of] approaching people is a huge one for me. So, this was interesting to witness that he approached and there were little steps of breakthrough.
Time came then, for me to go and get my results. But upon arriving at the place, I found out their system is still shut down. From right after I did the Covid test at 9 in the morning up until now it remained the same. Although they did have the results in their hands, if they were positive or negative, their whole website application wouldn’t allow them entry to fill the application for that. We were stuck. It was something out of their control, completely. Never did it happen before in their company, they said. The ladies working there were tense, anxious, and worried about us getting the results in time and not lose our bus with was at 7 pm. As it was raining, some cars passed by and gave me sweet gift of being splashed with water [Laugh] so I moved close to the door of that place not to get drenched furthermore. Standing at the door, a lady who worked there, came out near me, and informs me of my test was positive. How can this be? Six days ago, I was negative, and I didn’t really go out anywhere during the six days. She was perplexed just as I was. So, I can’t travel back now? I asked her in a strange calmness. (There you go, the peace of the Lord. That transcends all understanding). “Yes” she lamented, still informing me of some other issues. I was puzzled. What now? “I’m sorry Miss Adam, she lamented, “Can you tell me you name again?” I used my former name because of my documents. So, after realizing my name, she rushes back and checks on something. She got the wrong person. The lady who came before me was the one who, unfortunately, was the one who had the results positive, not me.
Oh boy, [Laugh] all for souls, right?
So, waiting with me was another lady with her son. And as time drew close for us to go and get our buses, she was very tense. She was very worried because she had to travel by buses and if she missed this one, she would miss all of the next ones. She was also going through the same city in the same buses as me. So, I eventually engaged in a short conversation with her. As time was drawing close, I went on violently declaring and asking for this system to go back to function again. I was demanding it so violently, but it felt so pushing it, you know, like I was demanding opposite peace I had in myself. It was like I was trying to get anxious for nothing when I had peace in myself—that inner peace and calmness as if the Lord assuring me saying, “Just trust me”, that he had it all figured out. I reached out to Mother Elisha and all the intercessors, asking them to pray for me, for all of us, in this case. And Mother Elisha reaches out to me, and she gives me the idea, counseling me, telling me that the Lord may be wanting me to step out and pray together with the lady, the one that was waiting with me, and with the other ladies—to pray together for the situation. So, here comes the “approaching of people” card into the scene—the one that is a very good challenge for me. Well, in this situation and time, I got the courage and just went for it, saying to the lady, “Would you like to pray about it?” I asked, and she agrees—readily. There was nothing, really, that we could do at this moment, so we prayed. So, when I moved away from the lady that was waiting with me, I tried to approach the other ladies who work in that place who were staying over their scheduled time because of the situation. They wanted it to be fixed, so they stayed over their working hours. They were joking and laughing that they would be sleeping that night, over there. I was trying to get them to pray together with me also, suggesting that. Along my attempts to see the opportunity, one lady who was shortly speaking with me, was simultaneously clicking on login button on the website, and she is shocked—in a wide jaw-open smile exclaiming out loud THE SYSEM IS BACK!!
What?!!
All the girls jumped to their feet and marveled. The lady that was waiting with me gained some life in her bones as she heard the good news. The system was back just three minutes after we had prayed together. God really moved so instantly. I bet all the ladies who were working there were also praying combined with the prayers of the intercessors.
And finally, it seems like God was — I felt that God deliberately allowed this situation to man me up, to step up and pray with a soul—out loud—because, yes, indeed, after we have prayed, no more than two or three minutes and the system is back up. It seems like he was waiting for me. It seems like the plan of God, this time, was not only for me to get out of my shell to go forth and bless people with a prayer. He set up this situation also because of the sake of the other souls. Because, right after this system was up and we were at the bus station, the lady who had been waiting with me, came and shared with me a hard trouble that she had, a burden about her family. She shared with me her struggles and we then also prayed there together at the bus station, trusting that the Lord would move on her life, on those in her family also. She is person actually who loves Padre Pio and is a Christian herself.
Eventually, right after I arrived in the airport at Zagreb, my attention was drawn toward three people who were somewhat arguing with a lady at the balcony because their airplane was going without them, and they were trying to convince the lady to let them in. There seemed to be an issue with their documents because of the new requirements. Because one of them did not have one document so they were all frustrated. All of the airport could hear, somewhat in that area, their shouts. And I was just going around them looking for the situation, praying inside my heart again. And, as I reached out to Mother Elisha to pray for them, she also tells me, “Well, now this is another chance for you to go and approach them and pray with them, out loud. [Laugh] I was reasoning with myself that because the guys were so angry—there were some —a little bit of cursing. I thought, man, this is not a good chance for me to approach them. I’d better wait. And I said the same to Mother Mary Elisha. And she said, “No, you are reasoning, just go, the Spirit is moving!” [Chuckle]. And, yeah, somehow, I managed to get a conversation and I soon find out that they have a mission—a mission that is a launching and the key person is one among them but he’s not in the airplane, so this is why they were so frustrated. This whole mission that they were going to launch is about setting the captives free, they said, rescuing the sex trafficked, the poor, all of the people who are oppressed. They said, setting free the captives. And it was interesting to me to listen to that. Eventually I prayed for them somehow, because one of the guys was constantly speaking. And not only that, I noticed that maybe God was moving in a way that was hidden to me because all the three people, they believed in God. One looking at me, remembered his grandmother who was very religious and when he saw me, he said that he got nostalgic because he thought that this whole generation of today is getting lost from faith. So, he had his hopes back up again when he saw me. There was a lady among them, and I could see her eyes being so tender at she gazed at me. I could see that she was respectable toward people of faith. And she was at peace in the midst of all that was going on with airplane. And yet the key person who was supposed to be launching the meeting, he said that this battle was definitely the Lord’s, I cannot do this, I don’t even know...” He was speaking of the Lord all the time. Eventually, when we parted ways, one of them turned and said as a farewell, “Thank you for being yourself, and who you are as a Franciscan Sister. It was interesting, they were all strange people, but— Wow—that was God’s move, for sure.
As I was waiting in Zagreb there a was still another case of another lady who had some complication with the documents, and she lost her airplane. She was so stressed. She was so in tears, and yet again, I had to go there—just being there with her—and we spoke, and yes, she got another airplane and she got home safely.
Then I set off for the United States of America. When I had landed, there was a person at the door of the airplane with my name a paper telling me that my next flight got canceled and they booked it for the next day instead They had a hotel room ready for me, they said. So, upon speaking with Mother Elisha, we decided to go there. Finding my way in the airport I soon find a way and am ready to order a Lyft. But there is a guy walking around and he soon asks me what is the outfit that I am wearing all about and if I am some kind of a religious Sister? Which I confirmed. Then eventually he came back, and we spoke, and I found out about his situation. He was in that airport for some time now, for days. He had a job but had no place to stay because his landowners had an issue with him, and he lost his home. So, he was going to work but coming back to the airport every time. And the security guys were already spotting him out and maybe he was in danger of being kicked out of that airport. So, reaching out to Mother Elisha again, we went forth to the hotel that I had. But when we arrived there to get a room for him also, not only for me, guess what? — the whole system shuts down, again. [Laugh] And the guy says, “This is the first time this has happened in our hotel. It never happened before. Why is it shutting down? He could not make a new reservation; he could not do anything, and I just laughed.
Knowing the history, maybe the Lord wanted me to pray with the guy—we were trying to give him a shelter. And I prayed, but in the end the system was still down. Then we got back to the airport and Mother Elisha took the situation from there and ended up giving him another motel room for one week. In the end, he got a place to stay. So, it makes me wonder—the Lord would shut down a whole flight for one soul to have one week to stay in a motel room. Seems like something the Lord would do. [Smile]. So, get ready, guys, if that happens with you, then you will know there is something up ahead.
Okay, so now it was time that I arrive in San Francisco airport, and I was tense because I knew that this was where the passport control happens. I was saying constant Hail Mary’s, I was praying in tongues, I was asking the angels to help me to fast-check-in and not have complications. And soon when it is my turn, they send me to the passport control room for foreigners. And I stay there and I wait. People go forth, some go out and then it is my turn it. So it happens that, in the end, I was not allowed to enter America for three more months. The guy had given me one week to get ready to leave America. That was the Lord’s mercy because he had yet another option. Either he fills out a paper and sends me back, right now, out of America to Portugal, or if I show him some proof that I have a ticket that later on I am able to go out of America, which I did have the first ticket from Istanbul, to Houston, my way back, it was still with me. So, I used that first ticket to get out this time. I showed it to him, and he consented to give me one week. During this one week, I was struggling. Mother Elisha and I had no idea where the Lord wanted me to go. So, we were wondering, is he going to send me back to Moldova, is he gonna send me back to Portugal, is he gonna send me back to some country yet new again—to the unknown? I had to face, during that week, a lot of things—my own preferences and attachments, the bitterness over what happened at the San Francisco Airport—it was a mess—an emotional mess. But in the end, the Lord revealed where the country would be.
So, there we go, all the time, as I was leaving America to go to Medjugorje, all of those sufferings were about my way back to America. The suffering was that I was not going to be staying for three more months, as we planned. This is why He kept telling me, in His faithfulness.
The lesson of this trip is that I entrusted my failures to Mother at the Apparition Hill and, on my way back, she applied those situations that happened, were all little steps to breakthrough because one of my biggest failures is approaching people and praying for them out loud, or even telling them about Jesus. There is this constant fear of men in me and it’s a struggle. This is like hope on the horizon for me because all of those people that approached me, all of those people that I approached, they gained my confidence in the Lord—gave me hope it’s beginning to break through. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every time I will approach the people whenever I feel led to. I still mess up, but I can see that there is a spiritual change.
There is something that happened over there that is still here with me. I will still fall, I will still do mistakes, but being in the hands of Mama Mary, you surely should expect some change soon. So, this was the change for me in Medjugorje, that after five years of struggling, with the scrupulosity of approaching people, praying over them out loud, speaking of Jesus, it came through—it’s beginning to come through. God bless you guys.
This was the short journey that I had in Medjugorje and the little, huge breakthrough that I had experienced. And I hope that the same happens with you. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to go to Medjugorje. It means you have to trust and give yourself in your Mama’s hands, for she will do with you as her maternal heart knows best. For the pleasure of the Lord—growing you up and helping you. The Lord bless you.