Today was faith day.
A day where we literally trust in the Lord for everything.
The rules of faith day are as followed:
-You must find transportation, you must be fed, and you must share the gospel.
Easy right?
Well there are a few more rules.
-You can not bring anything with you. No money, no food, no smart phones or wifi device. Nothing. Simply trust what the Lord is telling you, and act in faith.
The day started off at a house where we meet before ministry everyday. We split up in our teams, and had some of the employees from the organization we are working with join us. We were told to pray and ask the Lord for clues to who we should talk to and what we should be looking for. This was called our spiritual map. We started praying and the Lord started showing us things.
This was our spiritual map:
Bus
Taxi
Thamel (district in Kathmandu)
Yellow star and stars
Old man with a beard
Evergreen/Christmas tree
2 O’clock
Deep empty Well
Brokenness
Bowl of apples
Church
Trust
First bus (meaning we would get on the first bus that would let us on for free no matter where it went)
With that the 8 of us started walking to the bus stop. I am going to be honest I was not excited about the day. It was suppose to be our adventure/rest day. I know this sounds really selfish, but I was tired and just wanted to spend time in nature with the Lord, that’s where I feel the closest with him. As we were walking I gave God my sour attitude and told him I know you can do big things and I will continue to walk out in faith. A few minutes passed and we made it to the bus stop. A bus stopped and a few teammates started talking to the bus conductor. They told him we were trusting our God to provide us with free transportation today and if we could hitch a ride. They said they couldn’t help and went on their way. A few seconds passed and a micro bus stopped. The same teammates started talking to the driver and conductor. As I waited I turned to see the next bus pull up. It was decorated in stars! I tapped Mary Catherine on the shoulder and pointed it out to her. I tried talking to the conductor, but he didn’t speak English and the bus left. I walked back to the micro van where my teammates were telling the conductor and driver about the day and Jesus. They didn’t want to give us a ride for free. We told them that we would still love to pray for them and their work day. We all laid hands on the micro bus and started praying. Not even a few seconds after we started the employee that was with us stopped us and told us they changed their mind, so we got in the bus. We were told this bus would take us Thamel. Awe struck we started giving thanks to the Lord. As we were doing so I looked over to the conductor. He was wearing a base ball cap. As I looked closer I saw it had two stars on it! Excited I pointed it out to my team. One of my teammates said I believe we are suppose to be following the stars. The rest of the ride and walk to Thamel we kept passing stars.
Finally we enter the busy familiar streets of Thamel. We spent some time there for debrief. Not sure where to actually go we started walking. I was looking all around for clues when a teammate pointed out yellow stars and a small pine tree outside a restaurant. We walked in and me and a teammate started talking to one of the workers. Long story short she didn’t really speak English and was confused to why God would lead us to her. We told her that he wanted us to meet her and that he is such a good Father. She was still confused. We asked if we could pray for her, but she said no because she was Buddhist. As we left I told her I would be praying for her today.
We were off again. A teammate remembered a restaurant that had a HUGE evergreen growing out of the middle of it, so that’s where we went. Once we got there a teammate explained the day and if you could have food and that we were willing to do dishes to repay for the meal. The manager on duty said the owner wasn’t there and he couldn’t do much for us. Not sure what to do we left the restaurant and sat on steps in front of another restaurant. As we sat a dog that we named Nepal/Rex when we were in Thamel found us and sat by us. This gave us comfort and brought a smile to our faces. We sat there for about 40 minutes praying and asking each other what we felt like we should do. One teammate felt like we should let Nepal/Rex lead us. We turned to find him sleeping, so we stayed right there. My teammates pointed out that the man who we think was a drug dealer next to us had stars all over his shoes and the hotel across the street had a huge yellow star in it. There was an old man with a beard passing by selling mangos that we were able to have a brief conversation with. We knew that was the place the Lord wanted us.
A few teammates started singing worship songs when all of a sudden a woman eating at the restaurant came outside and greeted Hannah with Jai-masih (it means praise God) right at 2 O’clock. Hannah told the woman what we were doing and about the race. Her and her friends were missionaries too. Hannah told the woman that we completed two parts of faith day, but had one major part left, food! As she was talking to the woman, two teammates came back with free water which was a blessing. The woman told Hannah that she was going to go back inside and talk to her friends. We patiently waited outside still praying when all three of the women came outside. We told them more about what we were doing and they told us about their ministry. In the middle of the conversation a few of us were handed money equaling over 120 US dollars and 500 Indian Rupees (Equaling almost 8 US dollars).
We were blown away at how much our Father had blessed us with. We talked and prayed about what we should do with the money. After a few minutes we agreed that we would go back to the restaurant where the evergreen was and tell the workers about our faithful Heavenly Father, and the rest of the money would go to the church we were helping build.
We returned to the restaurant and started telling the manager on duty how faithful our God is and asked him what he believed in. We had a feeling because of the red paint on his head, he answered “I’m Hindu”. Even though he was a Hindu he didn’t seem to really believe in his thousands of Gods, so we asked him if he knew who Jesus was. He shook his head, but continued to tell us he was Hindu. Before he left the table we told him that we were praying for him. He didn’t say much, but we knew we were being obedient.
After our meal we ran into another team and were able to bless them with what the Lord blessed us with. After talking to them for a few we still had more than enough money left over to get taxi’s for the ride home. While driving home Hannah told us that a woman stopped her while we were talking to the other team. Hannah gave the woman her water and the Lord told her “She is the empty well of brokenness and I am the living water that is filling her up”
As I sit typing this I am still blown away how amazing the Lord is. He showed me that no matter how crazy something seems that if we just trust and lean on him he will provide bigger and better than we ever could on our own.
