Recently I’ve been feeling convicted about not blogging. Finding
time to blog has been extremely difficult after returning home from The World
Race. My excuse has always been, “I’m too busy.” However, I’ve also realized by
not telling my stories I am robbing others and God (because He’s not getting
the credit). Then I realized I hadn’t blogged in 2 years. For that, I’m very sorry.
I want to begin by letting you know I’m still alive, ask for your forgiveness,
and tell you an amazing God story from this past summer. This story will be posted in two parts.
In June 2012 I had the privilege to lead an Appalachia mission
trip to east Tennessee for Adventures In Missions. On this mission trip I
bonded with 30+ strangers from a small church in Wisconsin who I now consider
part of my extended family. On the first morning, I spent a few minutes talking
to the group about being okay with interruptions during the day. I explained that sometimes we can get so focused on the “work”
that we can overlook or even forget about the people right in front of us. I
admitted to having missed many opportunities on my 11 month mission trip by being
so focused on our “ministry” time that I missed the people we passed
on the way to our ministry site, the people walking around the ministry site,
and even people on the mission trip with me. I explained to the group that if we
allow for interruptions (just like Jesus did), we allow room for God to do HIS “work.”
Later that afternoon I was driving a group of ladies back to our
base so they could prepare dinner for the entire group. When I turned onto the highway
entrance ramp, I spotted a man and his dog sitting on the side of the road. I
immediately pulled over, backed the car up, and asked the group in the car to
pray about this opportunity. The group consisted of two female teenagers
(Rachel & Annika), myself, and a lady named Carol (who was the cook for the
entire group and the mother of Annika). Carol had quite the agenda planned out
for the evening, so stopping was a little stressful for her. Rachel and I were
nervous, but were also excited to see where God was going to lead us. Annika
was excited about the opportunity to share the gospel, but was afraid to share
her faith with others.
After we got out of the car, we prayed a quick prayer to get
clarity and direction from God. Then we proceeded to walk over to the
hitchhiker. We found out his name was Noah and his destination was
Cincinnati. Later we learned that Noah’s life was going down the wrong path in
Cincinnati, OH and wanted a change of scenery so he decided to visit a friend
in Damascus, VA. After chatting
with Noah for a little while, I asked permission for our group to step away and
pray about something. We went about 20 feet away and asked God for direction.
Rachel and I both felt a peace about helping Noah and wanted to give him a ride
to Knoxville. I told the group we would only pick up Noah if everyone felt
a peace about it. I said it has to be unanimous or we would not pick him
up. Carol and Annika were still a little unsure and anxious about the
whole ordeal and wanted more time to get to know him. However, we were running
out of time and I wanted to be respectful of the ladies time to cook dinner.
Therefore, I proposed that we should speak with Noah one final time and if
Carol and Annika felt a peace about it, they we would have to signal me. We
agreed on very specific signals for each of the ladies and asked them to signal
me if they wanted to help Noah. So we went back and began talking to Noah.
During our conversation, Noah mentioned that he was a cook. Almost
immediately Carol began signaling me and a few minutes later Annika did too. Then
we prayed over Noah. After the prayer he thanked us. Later he shared how he
recently said a prayer to God for the first time. He said the last few days had been really tough,
so tough that he prayed to God because he couldn’t do it on his own anymore. We
were an answer to his prayer. Later I learned the importance and magnitude of
his prayer. You see, Noah wasn’t just a nonbeliever. He was a guy who did not
grow up in a church or grow up hearing stories in the Bible. On our way back to
the base, Annika had this idea to invite him to dinner with the rest of our
group. I asked Noah if this would be okay and promised to take him to Knoxville
after dinner was over. He paused, then agreed.
