Hello fellow travelers!
I am doing well, first of all. Ministry is in full swing here in Chiang Mai, with several avenues to focus on. I will share in a future post the ways we are ministering to the streets of Chiang Mai, but I want to make sure to deliver on something I mentioned beforehand. As promised in my last blog post, here is the story of how my team and I were led to a specific person to minister to through listening prayer. Here is a picture of Attila, some of the team, and I.
After some training camp time out in the Eubank residence, we came back to Zion Cafe in Chiang Mai, which has become our headquarters. Close to the end of our training, we had what has been dubbed “activation” where the things we learn in a classroom are put into action in the real world. We had been taught listening prayer, and used it for ourselves and for others in our group, but now we would be using it for any and everyone. This is called “ATL”, which stands for “Ask The Lord”. Basically, you ask God to place specific people on your heart to minister to. It is as simple as saying “God, who is on your heart?” or “Lord lead me to someone in need of your love”. After that, you write down any impressions, images, words, and names that you get, repeatedly praying and listening for clarification for maybe what ails the person, age, ethnicity, clothing, et cetera. It’s quite simple, but if you have never done it before, you feel a little weird. Me being from a Southern Baptist background, where basically the Holy Spirit doesn’t do anything too crazy or it couldn’t be Him, it was a bit new to me. One thing I know about God, though, is that the limits we place on him are oftentimes man-made, which rewrites God in man’s image when all is said and done. The Holy Spirit will surprise you, and if you have the right heart, you will love it.
I told God when I left for this trip that He could have it all, do whatever He wants in my life, and I was all in for it. My 31 years of doing the Christian life my way had left me wanting, hungry for something I knew I did not have yet. So I jumped in head first, and this is the first of many gold nuggets I have found. My team decided to pray alone, write down everything, then pray as a group into what each person got. We had some really weird things, a food market, Australian, a shark, a flower, Susie or Sue, the color “light green”, Chang Beer (which is everywhere), cargo shorts, person eating alone with face away from us, square 4-person table, and more. Here is a picture of the notes we took.
Several seemed to be linked, so we set out to look for signs. We headed fro the food market where we saw signs confirming me were on the right path. We turned into a big food aisle with many restaurants and we see a man eating at a square 4-person table alone, wearing a light green shirt, looked Australian, wearing flip flops and cargo shorts, a shark tooth necklace, backpack with flower print. We were so sure it was him, it was uncanny! I had never experienced something like that. We decided that only 3 of us should approach him, so 2 young ladies and I went to eat at the restaurant he was eating in front of. As we approached, the waitress indicated that we should sit at his table with him. Things are done a bit different here in Thailand. I asked him if that was okay and he said sure, so we sat down and began to chat with him about the food. The conversation went quite smoothly. We found out his name was Attila and he was from Hungary but lives in Malaysia where he attends school. He was traveling while on break and was set to rendezvous with his mother and brother in Bali soon. When I asked what his mother’s name was, he said “Susan” and again it was confirmation. He asked our names and when he got to me, he asked me where it came from and I said the story of Jesus. Curiously, he said “You say story as if you don’t believe it” and I told him I did believe it, then asked him if he did. He said not really, but he considers himself a Christian. His problem was that he felt the Christians in Hungary were a clique that would reject people unless they paid money, and if they didn’t they were shunned. We discussed how in God’s eyes, church looks a lot more like what we were doing at that moment, breaking bread, speaking life, and enjoying one another’s company. He shared that he had gotten injured and almost died a while ago while in Thailand because he had a motorcycle crash. He believed he should be dead, but something saved him, and since then he had been thankful to that presence. We shared then that God had led us to him through prayer just to tell him that God loves and is actively seeking him out. When we showed him our notes, his eyes grew big, and by the end of the conversation, we were able to encourage and pray for him, his injury, and his family. His eyes were wet with appreciation and he seemed almost in a dream which he wasn’t waking from. I could feel God’s love for him, and through all of our time here, I keep thinking back to that night. It amazes me the lengths God goes through to show us His love for us. I feel so blessed to have been able to be used to show this man God’s love and care for Him, and I look forward to a life full of the same. What would be better than showing God’s love to my fellow travelers who don’t know of it? This is just the beginning; I know God has so much more in store, and I am excited to continue jumping in head first and let God handle the logistics.
On a side note, have you ever experienced or tried listening prayer/ATL? I would love to hear your stories; leave some feedback in the comments section. I believe this is a powerful tool we can use to connect people to the heart of God. All around us, people need to know of God’s love for them, and if we open ourselves to be used, God is right there waiting to speak. We just need to be in the position to receive from Him. I would really love to hear from you all reading. Sometimes it feels like I am just talking to myself, so your responses help me continue to feel encouraged to blog.
As usual, if you would like to support me in my ministry, I would greatly appreciate it. I am currently stalled at 48% (edit:77% as of July 18th) funded. I need to raise another $3,700 over the next month and a half to stay on the race. Every little bit counts. You can donate by clicking the “Support Me” link at the top or left of this page. To all of you who have already donated, I cannot thank you enough for investing in me and all of the people I get to love on over this year. You are greatly appreciated.
