I went on a treasure hunt with yellow daisies.

 

I went on a treasure hunt with yellow daisies.

In Northern Ireland, our team has been doing something called 'Treasure Hunting.' This is not your typical X on a map or easter egg hunt. This is a little adventure all done through prayer and asking the Lord what, where, and who He wants us to go interact with. The other day, I went out with several girls to do a prayer walk, but before leaving the house, we stopped to pray and ask the Lord if He could give us any images, words, or ideas about where our 'treasure hunt' would lead us.

As I began to pray, God gave me this picture of me… handing yellow daisies to someone. That was it. No explanation, no understanding as to who or where. There's a flower shop just down the road, so before we went in, I told the girls, "Okay, if they have yellow daisies, then I'll know it's meant to be." We went inside, and right under the cash register sat a bouquet of big, beautiful, bright daisies. I bought them, and we began to walk into town.

As we walked down the main street, I began to pray, "Lord, who am I supposed to give these to?" Nothing. Several of the girls stopped and talked with different people. I just scanned the shoppers, and families pushing strollers, young guys talking on their cell phones, and people passing. Nothing. The time was drawing to a close, and we were going to have to leave soon. I still hadn't given away the yellow daisies. As we began to walk back the direction of home, I prayed again. Finally, I heard, "She will be a woman, and she will be sitting alone." So I began to search for a woman sitting alone. We neared the park by the square, and I saw her. She was an older woman, just quietly sitting on the park bench, watching people pass. I thought, "okay, God, here goes!"

I walked up to her, and as I held out the flowers, I said, "So, this is a little strange, but I'm a Christian, and I was praying earlier, and the Lord told me there was someone I needed to give some yellow daisies to. You are that person. Would you like these yellow daisies?" She was shocked. She looked around, like, "is this real?" She timidly took the flowers from my hand, and said, "this is so surprising. I mean, nothing in this world is free anymore, I mean… there's no gimmick?" I laughed and said no, there's no gimmick, they are just a gift to her, God's way of telling her how important she is to Him, how much He loves her, how unique and valuable she is.

We talked for a while and she shared about a time she was in America and we exchanged thoughts about life in America and Northern Ireland. Her name was Charlotte. Before I left, I asked if there was anything I could pray for for her. "Well, I am a Christian, actually. But, you could pray for my family, they have walked away from God I would really appreciate that." I agreed to pray for her family, and we exchanged goodbyes. As I walked away, I came back to my group of girls who had gathered some distance away. I looked back and saw her sitting there on the park bench, gazing over her yellow daisies. Just then, I thought, "I should snap a picture of her sitting there holding her daisies!" So I began to sneakily run back to the area she was sitting, hoping to snap a photo. 

I snuck behind a telephone booth (yea, I'm sneaky like that), and just as I popped my lens out – there were two! She had struck up a conversation either with a stranger or someone she knew – and I could see she was pointing to the flowers and explaining that this random girl had given them to her and told her how much God loves her. Just then, I watched her give those yellow daisies to this other woman! The yellow daisies that keep on giving!! I went back over to Laura, my teammate, and told her what had happened. "We should try to follow the second lady, and see what she does with them!" Thinking this was a good idea (we were like Mission : Impossible agents now!) we ran around the corner to try and find the woman. We did see her, and she had walked out to her car and put them inside. "Okay, okay," we thought. "That's good…she will be blessed."

But then as we saw the second woman walk back into the park, we saw her and Charlotte meet back up with each other. It connected. "That's her daughter," we realized. "Okay, so it's not quite as cool or coincidental as we thought it was with the whole 'Pay it Forward' thing." Our friend Becky said, "well, you know the color yellow for a flower represents hope, right?" No, I didn't know that. "And you were saying that she specifically asked you for prayer for her daughter and son, for her children, right?" Yup, she did. "So, there you go. There is a reason for it all – even to show you that when you pray, and God speaks, He will answer in tangible ways. He hears your prayers for Charlotte's family, and that's proof!"

Just another day on The World Race!