This is the blog post where you’re all going to think I’ve officially gone crazy.
We are currently in Riga, Latvia for an all-squad Leadership Development Weekend.
The second night we were here, we were asked to group off into 4-5 people and do ATL. I’ve explained ATL a bit before, but let’s recap. ATL = Ask The Lord. We pray for direction from God which can come in a lot of different ways: feelings, a word, a picture of something, anything really. The hard part is stepping out in faith to speak those things out even though they sound crazy and make no sense even to ourselves. I grouped up with some girls from other teams and we got some random pictures popping into our heads that made no sense to us, but we spoke them out anyway:
– Hesburger sign (burger joint right down the street)
– Neon lights
– Martini glass
– Music
– A specific bar with a “Live Music” sign
– Man with red pants and black jacket
We started off at Hesburger since it’s the closest to us. We stood under the sign and prayed for the place, the people, for direction, more pictures, for God to reveal why He brought us to Hesburger. While we’re praying I looked down the alleyway at a bar with lights that changed shape. Right as I looked at it the light changed into the shape of a music note. As I was telling the girls about it, an older woman walked up to us looking visibly distressed.
Her eyes were red and full of tears. She looked desperate for help, but didn’t know how to communicate it. I don’t know what drew her to us exactly, but it was like something in her knew she was supposed to come to us. We tried talking with her, but she didn’t speak any English and her breath smelled very strongly of alcohol. My heart broke for this woman! We did some miming to ask if we could pray for her and she seemed equal parts confused and eager. We laid hands on her and started to pray. With each person that prayed, she became more filled with emotion. Once Amy started praying the woman became so emotional that she gave Amy a big bear hug and kisses on the cheek and wouldn’t let her go. After we prayed, the woman started hugging and kissing each one of us and joy began to radiate from her. It became stronger and stronger the more she circled and continued to hug and kiss each one of us several times around. We told her over and over that Jesus LOVES her. I know in her heart she understood. This woman who came up to us so distraught and with fear in her eyes was suddenly bold and alive and full of joy!
I don’t know this woman’s story, where she came from or where she went from there. We prayed after that if she remembers nothing else from this night, she’d remember such an intense feeling of being truly loved and the name of Jesus. The love we showed her was such a small fraction of the magnitude of love God has for her, but I pray that feeling sticks with her for the rest of her life. I pray that whatever she’s searching for, whatever voids in her life and in her heart that she’s trying to fill with alcohol, would be filled instead with the love that Christ has for her. She is a daughter of God, the King of heaven and earth! She is treasured and valued and absolutely beautiful. She is loved just the way she is. Our hearts broke for her tonight, but that’s nothing to how God feels for her. He doesn’t want her to live like this. I don’t want her to live like this. It’s amazing how God can cross the paths of a group of girls who didn’t know what they were searching for and a woman who probably didn’t even realize she was searching for something too. I pray that night was a turning point for her.
But the adventure doesn’t stop there! After praying for the woman and the bar down the alleyway, we went to the other bar with the “Live Music” sign. Except when we got there it was different and the sign had changed. We prayed anyway. As we’re praying, Cicely looked up and saw a man in red pants and a black jacket. Almost immediately we all decided to follow him. Cori and See Eun ran towards him. Cicely, Amy and I hung back and interceded in prayer for them. Basically we just didn’t want to freak him out too much with 5 women running at him. Unfortunately, after talking a bit he didn’t want them to pray for him. Too bad we already were anyway. 😉
This night was heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time. God moves in the craziest ways! We started off this little adventure with the strangest combination of pictures we weren’t sure we hadn’t just entirely made up on our own. We ended with God leading us on the strangest little scavenger hunt I’ve ever been a part of. God can move through us in incredible ways if we’d only be open and courageous and let Him. We spoke up about the things we saw and God worked through it. Almost all of the things God showed us in prayer were seen that night.
The moral of the story is don’t let your fear or pride limit how God can work through you. Take a risk in looking stupid for God. It might not always be fruitful, but you have no idea how God can use you until you do!
