Behold the answer to your prayers my friends.

---

 

“Possum?”

 

I was about twelve years old when my grandma said to me, “There is a possum eating our chickens and I want you to help me to hunt him down.” So, we went to the property and we found a hole in the stonewall. Grandma knew that the possum must be inside that hole, so we got some shrubs and loads of dry hot pepper seeds then put them on fire and blew the smoke inside the hole.

 

In short order the poor possum came out half drunk and grandma grabbed the possum by the tail, hit him against the Rock wall and kill it.  She then took it home and with skillfully hands butchered the possum, cut it in pieces and boiled in big pot. All the while she was convincing me of how possums only eat chickens and fruits and they are good eating.

 

Sure enough, after cooking in lots of water she deep fryed the pieces and feed us along with French fries and salads. It tasted delicious even though I only ate “them things” twice in my life.

 

Yesterday it turned out to be a blessed day for me.

 

Just when I was wondering if any friends receive or read my emails, I went for a nap at 9:00 am and woke up at 12.00 noon. I then turned on my smart phone and found very encouraging messages. That turned out to be such a blessing that I went to my back yard for a long time and walked with my cane for ten to twenty laps on my deck.

 

Last night I slept for five hours like a baby but had to change my shirt that was wet in sweat.

The point of this letter is to thank you for your prayers and notes as an answer to my letter.

My letter to you was like the smoke that brought the possum out from its cave.

I don’t mean to compare you with possums, but it was delicious to read your loving letters of concern.

 

“Talking about the mysterious ways that God works nowadays.” But, Possums?? Well, “What I have written, I have written.” Thus spake the possum hunter of Jesus on duty my delicious friends.

 

During the last three days I have had many calls from Peru full of tears of desperation from a family who is about to lose one of its members to suicide. After a long call the man surrender his life to Jesus in tears of joy and now he is reading the Gospels and will call me with his report.

 

Another niece called me in tears of regret for having taken me for granted and begs me to return to Peru. Another businessperson is willing to come to help me personally with my situation here, but peace of mind is not there yet.

 

I found a new nephew in New Jersey that has been here for sixteen years and lives with 28 other people in a community where all except him got the Covid-19. He is happy to have found a Church right before the pandemic and now he is looking forward to joining the church.

 

Another friend called yesterday to share the secret formula to overcome diabetes in one week.

 

But what I enjoyed the most yesterday and this morning is that I have received notes from those whom I did not expect and I did not receive notes from those whom I was expecting. Thank you for being a friend.

 

This reminds me of what Billy Graham once said, “There will be surprises in heaven, to find people you never thought they would make it to heaven but are there, and you will also not see some of those that you thought should be there and are not there at all.”

 

Oh, if it would be as simple as smoking the possum out of its hole. My list of friends for whom I pray daily has increased recently due to an invitation to fill the gap left by my cousin who just died. Just ask if you want to be in my second list. (But you must believe in Prayer more than in praying.)

 

I guarantee nothing but I will consider your petition seriously before the Lord.

 

I believe to be a man of prayer, but I hardly “pray” at all. My long agony in prayer is to know that what I am about to pray whether it is according to and in agreement with the word and will of God and the mind of Jesus.

Once I reach that point, business with God does not take me much time at all.

In that sense and in clean conscience, to the chagrin of friends and strangers, I can say that all those prayers are always “Yes in Jesus.” Never No.

 

Where Faith is equal to Prayer under the Word and Will of God, all things are a prayer away. Yes Jesus!!

F=PW2.

 

This was Gerry Einstein oops Albert Gutierrez. Never mind we both are Naturalized Citizens, we both have heavy accents, we both are very “smart” ... well, two out of three.

 

Your Gerry Gutierrez.

 

PS. I just got an international call reporting that a mother and daughter from my mentoring group are reading furiously the Gospels together and I was able to encourage them in that endeavor. 

 

The pictures are of Possums and other animals that crisscross my front yard during the night and trigger my flood light. My friend Scott brought some cameras in the tree and took these pictures.