On the race, ATL does not normally stand for the Atlanta airport (except that one time we launched from there!). It means Ask the Lord. We trust that if God wants us to live lives according to the Spirit, that he will speak to us and lead us by the Spirit!
As part of our leadership development weekend, we planned a whole afternoon reserved for A.T.L outreach. Let me tell you about our day!
-First, we sat in a group and prayed quietly. We used “listening prayer”, meaning that we asked God to speak to us. We wanted to hear where He would lead us. As we sat, we wrote down the things He brought to mind. “Wheelchairs” “Talking to couples by the water” “Laughing together” “Healing” and more.
-We set off to Bangkok’s river walk. There, we talked to a couple from Holland. The conversation flowed easily. They were turned off to Christianity because they thought Christians hated the LGBTQ community. “No way!” my friend replied. “We love gay people! We don’t agree with their take on romantic relationships, but we love them!” They were pleasantly surprised to hear it.
-We hopped on a taxi boat, excited at what God might do. We realized that every person in the group was medically inclined. That’s when it dawned on us…”Wait! The paper said something about healing!” With that, we started talking about possibilities. At first, we joked that one of us should ask the tour guide to use her microphone. The more we talked about it, though, the more we realized how little we have to lose. With that, a teammate boldly stood up, walked to the front of the boat, and asked to use the microphone. She told the tourguide what she wanted to do, and…was handed a mic! “Hello! We are a group who would like to pray for you. If you have physical pain in your body or need healing, let us pray for you!”
-My friend Zach and I walked to the back of the boat. There was one man in particular that the Lord pointed out to me. I tapped him on the shoulder and once I found out he spoke English said, “Hi. This may sound odd, but I felt like I should specifically ask you if there is anything you might want prayer for”. I had no idea what was coming. At that, he whipped around and launched into a passionate monologue: “The flying spaghetti monster has me covered, THANK YOU”… “I’M OFFENDED that you’re SHOVING your form of INSANITY down everyone’s throats”…”Are you going to STONE YOUR CHILDREN, too?!” He continued on… I was a little surprised. I asked him for his name and he turned away, rolling his eyes and scoffing at me. I held out my hand. “Well, my name is Natalie. I’m genuinely sorry that you were offended.” At that, he softened a bit, turned and introduced himself as Rick. I thought it was interesting that God would specifically lead me to Rick. I think he wanted to break down a bit of that barrier of CHRISTIAN v. ATHEIST and show Rick that, really, we’re just people like him.
-As we walk on shore, we see a happy old man with a hearing aid. I approach him and ask him if we can pray for his hearing. The woman translating thinks I’m saying “pay” instead of “pray”, so we spend about five minutes communicating that no, we are not trying to buy this elderly man’s hearing aid. When he finally understands what we are asking, he declines prayer. We say thank you and leave.
-We sat with another couple from Holland for lunch. We were elated when she told us that her job was doing upholstery for wheelchairs. (Wheelchairs!) We chatted, mostly about cultural differences, but were able to share with them what we were doing in Bangkok. They weren’t very open to the gospel, and would not let us pray for them, but we did enjoy their company.
-A few teammates found another man (an English speaker!) in a wheelchair. He claimed to believe in God, but also claimed to be Buddhist. My friends were able to pray for his ankle and share the gospel with him.
All in all, it was an eventful and weird day. Typing it out, it sounds a little depressing; it didn’t feel that way, though. As we went through our day, it became increasingly obvious to me: Success is measured in obedience to the Lord, not in a specific outcome. I’ve seen the power of the gospel. I’ve seen many people instantaneously healed on the spot. I’ve seen people freed of demonic oppression. I have full confidence in who my God is and what he does. A.T.L. in Bangkok reminded me that it’s his job to change hearts; my job is just to listen & obey.
