I have had many favorite moments on the race. Most, if not all of these moments happened without expecting them. Something I continue to learn is that God is full of surprises and that is one of the many reasons I love pursuing a relationship with Him! In this blog I am going to share two of my favorite moments that happened in the last month.
Moment #1:
One night my team and I watched a movie to unwind before bed. I fell asleep which wasn’t a big surprise to me or my teammates…once I lay down I am out like a light. After the movie my teammate Abel and I went downstairs to read a passage we have been memorizing. We hadn’t gone over it a second time that day and consistency is key when memorizing even if it is 12:30am and we are half asleep.
We are about to start reading with our Bible out in front of us when the night receptionist sees what we are doing. He leaves and then comes back with his Bible and takes a seat at our table.
Quick backstory on how he received this Bible:
The first morning at the guesthouse in Siem Reap, Cambodia, this is where my team and I stayed all month, I went down to the café area to read. Tim(alias for confidentiality), the night receptionist was still there and he asked me what I was reading. In short, I told him it was a bible and it is about Jesus. Then my teammate Mark had a similar experience and Tim asked Mark for a Bible. Our ministry host had an extra and so Mark was able to give our new friend one of our favorite books! We have been told that Tim is not a believer so it was exciting to see him interested.
Now back to the original story:
When Tim sat down I had many mixed emotions, my flesh was saying I am exhausted and I do not want to talk with him right now but my soul was was leaping up and down with joy and couldn’t wait to read the Bible with him. So I fought strongly against my flesh and let the Holy Spirit take over. Tim opens his Bible up to Genesis 1 and begins to read the creation story. After he read some, Abel flipped his pages to the New Testament and asked Tim to continue reading. His reading level surprised me and when he did not know a word he would ask what it meant. As he continued to read he came across “Jesus”. He did not know how to say it. I sounded it out and he repeated it to me a couple times. In that moment I realized he had never said Jesus before. This was his first time saying the most powerful name in all the universe! It was so exciting! Tim had many questions about the Bible and what we believed. He said many of his friends have been teaching him about their religions but he didn’t seem super interested in those. Tim seems to be searching and seeking after something bigger than himself. Which is super cool! Please pray for Tim that he may come to know the one true God and that he is not brought down by the prominent idol worship around him.
Moment #2:
This moment takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand at 1am. My team and I were staying in a hostel for a night while we were in transition to our next ministry site. We stayed up late playing cards and talking. It was about 1am when Abel and I went down to the lobby to read our passages we were memorizing (same passage mentioned in moment #1). We had the Bible out about to read when a girl and a guy walked into the lobby. They walked by and the guy says “you’re reading the Bible? That’s deep.” Then he walks away. Abel and I just laugh at the comment.
Soon after, the guy, let’s call him Peter, comes out into the lobby again. He sits down next to me on the couch and asks us where we are from and what we are doing in Thailand. Abel tells him we are Christian missionaries and he looks at us with intrigue and a “wow” expression on his face. Peter was so excited and interested in knowing more. He asked us questions about what and why we believe what we do. We talked a lot about grace and how we are forgiven. We discussed how we have joy because of the relationship we have with Jesus. Peter’s friend ended up joining in the conversation half way through too and both of them asked great questions and they were such a blast to talk with. Next thing we knew it was four in the morning! We had been talking for three hours!
That night (early morning) discussion was definitely God orchestrated. Peter and his friend didn’t make a decision to follow Jesus that night but the Lord is doing something with those two. They are absolutely incredible guys! Please pray for our new friends. They are curious and intrigued by everything we talked about and I pray that they come to accept, believe, and live it out for themselves!
There you have it…two of my favorite moments on the race this far! These two evenings taught me that God moves when you least except it. I also learned that it is important to take hold of these opportunities and do not let yourself make up excuses to not do what the Lord has put in front of you. Take it by the reigns, pray for some supernatural energy, and GO! Jesus is worth living for!
Thank you for all the prayers and support throughout these past eight months! Only two and a half months left until I am back stateside!
To God Be The Glory!
