So I’ve been giving you the high points of training camp and although there are a ton of things I could still tell you about this story is another thing I think you must hear. If you want to hear other stuff ask me I will gladly share with you.
On Friday we were asked to get together with our team and then told we would be doing an ATL (Ask the Lord) in Gainsvillie’s “Little Mexico” We were told that t is a lot like going into another culture because everything is in Spanish and not everyone speaks English. We were told to pray and ask God to speak to us and reveal what is was He wanted us to do while we were there. Jimmy said that it isn’t usual that one person gets the whole picture. More like everyone sees something or a few things and then they all seem to come together. He told us that this may be a big step for us, but this wa a place to try and even if we didn’t do exactly what was shown to us (maybe we didn’t understand it, or missed the signs or something) no matter what we did we would be blessing people so how can you really go wrong you know. So M:10 began to pray silently on our own as we sat in a circle. I kept having the word “rainbow” run through my head over and over. I thought oh that is crazy I don’t know why that word would run through my head my brain is just firing off random things. So, I kept praying for God to reveal something to me and rainbow kept running in my head. I was thinking, “God it is cloudy outside, there are no rainbows today. If I say that I’ll sound silly. I might say it if someone else starts off first.” I sat there waiting for someone else to speak and nothing. God was saying, “You have to go first. Show me you have faith in what I am telling you and step out.” So I did. I told my team about the word rainbow in my head and we wrote it down. We wrote down other various things that God brought to their minds as well. It seemed like a really random list. Enciladas, hair cuts, and all sorts of stuff.
After lunch we all piled into Tash’s SUV and we were off. When we got to the parking lot we see a hair salon beside a Mexican restaurant. Hmmm….maybe that is a sign. So we start walking around and we decide we need to not just look for the big sign but just start asking people if we can help them with something or pray with them. We walk around a while and see this line of buildings painted in bright colors and they look like a rainbow. We think that maybe this is the rainbow God meant. So we walk past but don’t stop anywhere. We then decide we need to split up because seven of us walking into anyplace is a bit overwhelming. So Rachael and Luann go to get Rachael’s hair cut because she feels that is where she is suppose to be. Then, Tash and Brian decided to walk down the road a bit. That left Charity, David and I and we thought lets go across the road to the Salvation Army. We did but didn’t really feel led to anyone there. There were already a few other racers in there anyways. Charity said we should head back to the rainbow buildings because she saw a little girl in the purple one and she felt led to talk to.
We go back and the little girl is walking to the back of the store, but we stay. Charity finds some bowling shoes she wants and when she talks to the lady who checks her out she realizes she is not American and asks her where she is from. She told us Romania. Charity told her we were getting ready to go there next year and asked what she missed most from her country. Laticia (I hope it spelled her name right) told us her church. We began to talk and found out that her family is very invlved in missions. Her husband has gone to India on a mission trip and was working on trying to go back. She told us she had translated for groups who had come to Romania to serve in missions. She told us about how God led her to the US and to her family here to marry her husband. Later, her husband and son arrived and her daughter had come from the back where she was doing homework and the rest of our team found us in the store and we all talked about missions and why we were doing it and just really shared our lives with one another. We were served tea and a snack and we just sat their in their store talking and sharing with one another. It was such an amazing blessing to be there and we were all positive that God had led us there to that store at that time to share with them and to bless them and to b blessed by them. It was so amazing to see how God worked thigns out and so amazing to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had gone where God wanted us to go and done what God wanted us to do. Following God is an adventure and one we will keep doing before during and after the race.
