11:30 pm Manila
We have been up adventuring and praying for the neighborhood we are staying in. This weekend is month 4 debrief and we are staying just down the street from the biggest redlight district in Manila.
Last night I went out with my teammate Mary. She was doing ATL (ask the Lord) to see what He wanted her to be on the look out for this weekend and she got an image of yellow shoes. We went out looking to see if we could find this girl with yellow shoes that God had shown her. As we walked around I was suddenly very aware of my own timidity in building relationship and praying for people. I am fearful that God will not heal the person and one more time I will find myself waiting for the miracle that doesn’t happen, I am afraid that the person I pray for will not believe in God as a result of my prayers not leading to healing. But I was reminded again that all God expects from me is to show up with a resounding “YES” in my heart. So I resolved to overcome that fear. I am going to be bold when I feel that little tug at my heart and be obedient in prayer for the hurts that I see.
My squadmate and I are in search of dinner. We decide to head to Army Navy for dinner so we set off on the 5 minute walk to the restaurant. As we walk down the street, we pass by a man with a crutch. He has one leg shorter than the other and cannot walk without his crutch. My first thought is to keep walking. He crosses the street and walks right in front of me. I walk past him and I am almost around the corner when it occurs to me that this is the perfect opportunity to put into practice the obedience that I want to learn. I run ahead to my squadmate and tell her that I will be right back. And we go back around the corner to the man I had seen.
I pray as I walk up to him. I ask that God will show up in this moment, with this man. I began thinking through how things might go. I can hear the whole conversation in my head. I will ask about his leg and share Jesus with him, then I will pray for him and wait for God to do some crazy miracle. I can see it all so clearly with every step I take back towards this man. When I approach him, he is standing on the sidewalk facing away from the street. He stares at me awkwardly. I say “Hi sir. What’s your name?” He still stares at me… I smile at him, still waiting for an answer then he looks down at the ground, looks back up at me, and says “I was just about to pee…” I look at my squadmate who is a little ways up the road. I look back at the man and apologize for interrupting him. “Ummm… It was nice to meet you” were my parting words as I quickly caught up with my squadmate.
Sometimes ministry doesn’t go as planned and all we can do is laugh at God’s sense of humor…
