10 Minutes of Prayer Changed Lives
Typical graffiti art on a street in Bogota, Colombia
It is the end of March, our third month on the race. I am in Bogota, Colombia for Leadership Development Weekend with my whole squad. In a few days we are going to fly out to Greece to work with the Syrian Refugees. This is how God prepared me for month four.
“So for the next 10 minutes, I want you to sit with the Lord and pray about going into Bogota to build God’s Kingdom here. Ask Him what He wants to show you and what He has for you today. Write down everything you see, every word that comes to mind, no matter how insignificant,” John explains to our squad.
I sit. I pray. I write down what I see. The first thing that the Lord shows me is the center of the city, a pagoda-like concrete structure. I see birds and a lot of light. There is a black woman dressed in white walking by the pagoda in the city center. The Lord tells me, “Tell her that I love her and that I want a relationship with her.”
We go out into the city, Mary, Danielle, and I. We walk through the city center praying for who we might come in contact with, being open to anything. We come across an elderly man selling candy on the side of the road. We stop, buy a lollipop from him and then talk to him for a few minutes. We ask him if we can pray for him. He says, “I’m catholic and I would like to pray for you too.” So, we all pray together.
We keep walking and start heading back because it is getting close to 4:30pm when we have to meet the rest of the squad, but something is stopping Mary. Danielle and I walk back to see what Mary is doing. “This woman is clearly drunk and is yelling at the people walking by. She is on my heart and I want to try to talk to her. Let’s sit here and see if she comes over to us,” Mary says as she eyes the surroundings and anticipates the next move of this woman.
We sit down and within a minute, this woman comes over to talk to us. “Do you want some?” She offers us some of her liquor. “No, thank you,” we respond. “What is your name?” Mary asks. “Andrea,” she replies as she pushes her hair out of her face to take another drink. “I am a bad person. I have messed up my life,” she says bluntly. “No one cares about me. I have no one,” she says without hope.
“Did you know that there is a God who loves you for who you are and wants a relationship with you? He wants to be with you and be there for you. He wants to provide for you,” I encourage her.
At this, she begins to cry.
“I have two children who stay with their grandfather. I am no mother. I can’t take care of them. I can’t even see them,” Andrea says. “I have done too many bad things. I can’t come to God now.”
“God wants you exactly the way you are. You don’t have to be perfect to come to Him. You just need to come,” I let her know.
“Do you want a different job?” Mary asks.
“I can’t work anywhere. Look at me! Look at my face!” She says out of despair, pointing to her face and highlighting the effects years of drugs and alcohol have had on her frail body.
“You are beautiful! You are God’s creation and He doesn’t make mistakes,” we say confidently.
At this, she begins to cry even more. “Where is He? Where?!” She asks desperately with tears rolling down her cheeks.
“He is right here. He loves you so much that He sent us here all the way from the United States to tell you right now that He loves you. We are here talking to you right now because He loves you. He sent Jesus to die for you because He loves you.”
“Can we pray for you?” Mary asks.
“Ok,” she says as she wipes her tears away one more time.
The three of us reach out touching her shoulders and her back to encourage her as we pray for her. Tears streaming and body shaking, she sits on her knees on the ground before the Lord.
We get up and start heading back. We are already late, but as we walk, I see her.
“There she is!” I shout out with excitement to my team mates. “There is a black woman dressed in all white walking by the pagoda! I have to go talk to her!”
At that, I rush over to talk to this woman. In her early 20’s, she has a slender build, and is about 5’4” tall. A tight black scarf wraps around her hair and under a long white coat that elegantly drapes over her body like a dress.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I ask her in Spanish. “Ok,” she replies, unsure of this blonde stranger approaching her in Bogota, Colombia. “What language do you speak?” she asks in Spanish. “English,” I say. “Well, then let’s talk in English. I speak English too. I am actually from Michigan,” she informs me. “That is awesome!” I say in English. “This conversation will be much easier for me! Ok, so I have to tell you something. I was praying with my missionary team here earlier asking the Lord to show me someone to talk to. He showed me a black woman walking by this pagoda dressed in all white. I had given up on finding you and we were actually heading back when I saw you walk by and rushed over to you.”
“Wow, that is crazy!” She says. At that point, I was about to tell her what the Lord told me, but I decided to find out what she believed first. “Do you belong to any particular religion?” I ask her.
“I am Muslim,” she says.
Ok, not what I was expecting…Muslim! I have never witnessed to a muslim in my life. It seems entirely too daunting to me. I don’t know enough about their religion. I don’t know what to say to them. What am I doing right now??? Lord???
“Go ahead and tell her,” He said to me. Ok, here goes…
“So, the Lord gave me a message for you. He told me to tell you that He loves you and that He wants a relationship with you.”
At this point, we reach the end of the sidewalk and she needs to get in line for the city bus.
“I know you need to go. It was really nice meeting you,” I tell her.
“Thank you for telling me. I embrace all religions so I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming over to talk to me. It was really nice to meet you,” she says as she walks toward the bus.
I skip back to the hotel, excited about God and excited about life. God is the one Who works. I am just His vessel. I had no idea in that moment, that the Lord was actually preparing me for loving hundreds of Muslims I would meet less than a week later.
