First and formost I felt the need to say, my goodness, there is so much that goes on in one day as part of the World Race that I wish I could write down every amazing thing for you all. But here I am laying on my hostel bed, writing on my phone at 5:30 am in order to get at least something out to you all.
“Go with the flow” is the basically the motto for the World Race, but we all know that God doesn’t just go with the flow, he has a purpose for every little thing.
Originally my squad and I were going done with ministry in Colombia on August 29th, then we were going to have 5 days of debrief and head out to Guyana on the 7th. Unfortunately (or well, fortunately), there was confusion with our flights so 5 people on our team left on the 7th but the other 23 of us are stuck in Cartagena, Colombia until the 13th. When the leaders first told us about the update, I was bummed out, I was ready for the next new thing and had already said goodbye to people of Colombia.
But God sure knew what He was doing by keeping us here an other 6 days. I can honestly say that these last few days have been my favorite from my time in Colombia. Since we didn’t have these extra 6 days planned, as a team we decided we were going to take advantage and do ATL (Ask the Lord) days. This means we take some time to pray and hear back from God what we aught to do for the day, who we should talk to, and if there is any specific location. Here are a just bullet points of all the unexpected things that have occurred these last days:
•met a massage lady on the beach, prayed for her, met up later in the week to pray for her and her daughter and then bless her by giving her a massage (and now we got invited to her daughters birthday party on saturday)
• connected with a worship leader at a random coffee shop that we were going a team bible study and ATL at.
• prayed (and some people cried) for street vendors as we passed we out candy and paper that said “Dios es la luz”
•met a surfer dude on the beach who happen to be a missionary with Calvary Church and went to help put up something to give shade on a skater ramp that they have on top of the church.
•I was reminded that God sees me as beautiful and my confidence when it comes to how I look should be rooted in how he sees me
• became 10x closer with people on my squad
•I was called out in love about simply running to people of comfort rather than engaging and leaning on my team.
•went scuba diving and to a beautiful beach on a private boat because we knew someone who knew someone who gave it to us super cheap because we’re missionaries.
What can I say, if “going with the flow” means I continually get blown away by how God works, then shoot, I’m going to ride it all the way.
Next few weeks update:
•We fly out of Cartagena on the 13th, land in Florida, and head for Guyana on the 14th.
• My team (Sweet Heat) is doing ATL/unsung hero type ministry all month. What this means is we don’t have a contact, a structured ministry time, a place to stay or much of anything really. We have a limited budged for food, lodge, transportation and ministry. Our purpose this month is to get to know and love people, hopefully create connections and most of all, go wherever God tells us to. There is no real plan (yaaay)
•we have 33/34 days in which we get to divide up however we feel God is calling us to between Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. So this means I’m not in one country the whole month, nor do I know when we will move on to the next one within the next 30 days.
This next month excites me all the more after being a part of what God has done these last couple of days. Please continue praying for protection, guidance and unity with God and my team.
In Him,
Lila
