Our month in Laos was definitely one for the books. This month was labeled “Unsung Heroes” month and our objective was to find and connect with organizations that the World Race had not yet connected with. Unsung Heroes are those doing Kingdom work within a country without the recognition they properly deserve. Our mission was to go and find these groups.
It was a month of faith as we leaned on the Holy Spirit to guide our everyday decisions.
Insert moment of honesty.
This is something that’s very new for me. I consider myself an independent individual. It’s something I even value about myself. So naturally I went into this month with a game plan. I knew exactly how it would go and what we should do.
But in all my planning I had forgotten to invite God into the month.
One day, we decided to do an ATL, or ask the Lord. Kind of like a treasure hunt, we sat in prayer for the morning asking the Lord to give us pictures, words or anything else He may wish for us to find that day. We gathered back together for lunch and compiled our lists together.
The strongest picture I’d received was of a white two-story building with two balconies and lots of potted plants.
We headed into the city in search of the visions God had given us, hoping they led to potential new World Race partnerships.
Honestly, it was incredibly disappointing. We all quickly became discouraged and decided to call it day.
I returned home unsure of how God was possibly going to show up this month. I couldn’t figure out why He had called us on this mission of finding unsung heroes only to lead us on a wild goose chase.
I’d lost faith that He is always working, even when we can’t see it.
A few days later, we met with an ex-pat, Roger, who had helped out World Race teams in the past. It quickly became clear why we needed to meet with Roger.
We laughed as he talked because he mentioned so many of our ATL prayers without ever knowing we had done such an activity.
It’s amazing what God can do when you allow Him into your daily life. How he can place people so perfectly into your life.
Eventually he asked if we needed a place to stay. It was perfect timing as our reservation at the place we were currently staying was about to expire and we would be left without a place to sleep. He told us of a hostel his friend owned. She was a Christian and well-connected within the city. We decided to take a look at the place even though we’d felt as though we seen every hostel in the city and everything had been out of our budget.
We followed him down the street to the hostel. And guess what? The hostel was a white two-story building with two balconies and lots of potted plants. I began to get excited as I knew this was the place we were supposed to be.
We went inside to look around and ask about prices. My hopes quickly dwindled as we saw the price sheet. Waaaay out of our budget.
But roger is a persistent man and he wanted us to stay at this hostel. That’s when the hostel employee mentioned their current promotion. Half off if we stayed for 3 or more days.
Ha! Half off was BELOW our budget!!
I went to sleep that night kicking myself for my lack of faith in a great provider who had never failed me before.
God continued to show up in big ways throughout the month and we left with 7 new exciting partnerships. It was a month of patience and faith, which the Father gently walked me through.
It’s a daily task to remind myself of how truly awesome our God is. How well He cares for us, provides for us and loves us. But he never fails and we have example after example to remind us of that.
