I knew that coming on the World Race would open my eyes to new ways in which God is at work in the world. I have been praying about that particular part of this adventure for quite a while. I guess I just didn’t think it would all happen in the first month.
We moved to Moca almost two weeks ago now. I had very strange dreams the first few nights. I would wake up and be completely certain in my half asleep state that other people were in the room. Some nights were different than others. The first time it happened, I thought there was some sort of party going on outside the front door. Another night I just saw a single boy standing in our room. Just last night, the room was completely full of people standing everywhere each time I awoke. I was not the only person seeing people at night. Other members of my team saw them, felt their presence, and even talked to them.
I’ve never experienced anything like this before. There’s no way to describe how it feels when your teammate sees the same person standing in the room even though you never described the person yourself. I am not scared by the presence of these people; it’s just very strange to me. One minute I’m sure that a full manifestation of evil is just an excuse for some people to give into temptation and the next minute there is something in the house we’re sleeping in that has told my teammate that they are present to stop us. We’re still experiencing their presence most nights in some way, but we aren’t letting t stop us from doing ministry.
God has also been revealed to me in new ways. I began this journey with prayer to experience God differently than ever before, and so I have been more aware of the presence of God than ever before. Last night, our host asked us to accompany him to visit a sick woman. It was late, it meant skipping our team time for the day, and we weren’t exactly sure how we were getting there. For some reason, I felt very strongly that we should go. At first, I didn’t speak up as others listed the multitude of reasons why taking this journey was illogical. One of my teammates finally suggested that we pray about going. In that moment these words popped into my head, “Stop praying. You already know the answer.” Soon after that silent conversation with God, my teammate looked straight at me and said, “What do you think?” It was time for me to fess up and go.
Six of us loaded into the back of a pickup and off we went, along with several of the host family members. When we arrived it looked like a party. At least 30 people were all hanging out at this house. After coffee and shuffling through the pictures from a recent wedding, we were all wondering exactly what we were doing there. Finally, we were asked to pray for the girl, who turned out not to be the woman we had expected. She was sleeping, so four of us gathered around and started praying silently. I immediately felt my heart get heavy and then start to burn. The longer I prayed, the harder it was to stand on my own two feet. After we were finished we were escorted straight out the door and into the back of the truck. It turns out another of my teammates hands had been burning during prayer. We have no idea what happened, but we were clearly mean to be present and praying for this girl.
I honestly don’t know how to process all of this information right now. They don’t fit into my credo, and for now that’s okay. Sooner or later I’m going to have to face reality and take a good look at my theology. For now, I’m going to focus on remaining open to the movements of God.
