When we left the U.S. in January, we had plans to partner with organizations in China and Mongolia during the months of April and May, but instead God redirected our path and sent us to Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand to do “Ask the Lord” ministry. As I’ve previously mentioned, ATL comes with no assigned ministry contact or pre-determined location but is completely holy-spirit led. That sounds pretty Jesus-y, but in reality it was going where we were called with no plan, no place to stay, and no idea what on earth we were doing, but trusting the Lord would provide.
Before leaving for Indonesia, my team gathered together in Malaysia to do listening prayer and create a brief plan of where we thought the Lord wanted to send us and the logistics of it all. Through prayer, we felt the Lord wanted to send us to Bali, an island roughly 30 hours east of where we’d fly into. Okay, that’s not super convenient, but it’s possible. We could take a few days by taking a bus or train, or we could catch a flight and get to Bali no problem. After 10 hours of intense research trying to book transportation and accommodation for Indonesia, everything failed. The websites weren’t in English and we didn’t have the budget and the Wi-Fi stopped working and our team credit card wasn’t accepted and literally every plan we tried to create fell through. What now? Fly to Indonesia and figure it out (AKA our only option).
GAHHHH WHYYYYYYY?!? *Picture me grudgingly dragging my feet in the mud, giving God the stink eye* These things aren’t supposed to be this hard! We are being obedient to the Lord so why would He send us somewhere we couldn’t get to? If you know me, you’d understand that this is so against every part of my being. I LOVE having a plan and figuring it all out beforehand so I am well prepared. Winging it, especially in a foreign country I’ve never been to, is not my idea of a fun time. But we truly had no other option, so I swallowed my fears and went.
An angel (my teammate Emily’s friend from home) blessed our team by booking us a hotel for our first night in Indonesia to give us some time in the country to figure out our plans. We checked into the hotel that evening, but the Wi-Fi didn’t work and it was too dark to find somewhere else that had Wi-Fi so we couldn’t make any plans, but we were thankful for a real bed to sleep in to get some much needed rest. The next day we decided to check out early in the morning, head for the train station, and get on the first train to Bali. Little did we know, it was the first day of a 4-day weekend holiday in Indonesia, so every train for the next 5 days was booked. SERIOUSLY?! We then traveled back to the airport, another 2 hour taxi away, to try and get on the first plane to Bali. Nope, no more in-budget flights for 2 days. Because it was our only option, we booked the flight and waited.
During this time of waiting, I had a lot of time to reflect. Why Indonesia—a country my team was never supposed to go to? It was clearly a divine appointment that God sent us here. We were obedient in going yet everything was going wrong that shouldn’t have. I prayed the Lord would give us peace from the frustrating past few days and a clear direction once we got to Bali.
After finally getting to Bali, it was time to set up ministry. We reached out to nearly ten separate organizations of varying ministries—sex trafficking, soup kitchens, foster care homes, churches, orphanages—asking if they could use our help during our 3 weeks there, but not a single organization replied. We knew we didn’t have to partner with an established ministry during our time in Bali, but we wanted to partner with an organization to have more structured ministry, something we missed from Africa and didn’t have the opportunity to do in Malaysia. But with no replies, we had to go back to the drawing board. “Ask the Lord” ministry: it’s as broad as the Lord himself. Make ministry your life, and your life a ministry. A simple-sounding concept, yet so ambiguous!
As the days passed, my team began to feel stuck and helpless. We didn’t know what to do. We questioned why God brought us here if there was only closed door after closed door. This restlessness in the team created tension and division. Massive issues were created out of small tiffs. Feelings were hurt. Relationships tarnished. Passive aggressive behaviors came out. Previous depression seeped back up. Sickness took over. Grace wasn’t given when it should have. Agape love wasn’t present. The Diamonds hit rock bottom.
Public Service Announcement: this is called SPIRITUAL ATTACK. Not to give credit to the devil, but God had big things planned for my team in Indonesia, and the enemy did his very best to destroy all of them. The only reason these things negative things happened was due to the evil scheme of the devil. The Lord sent us to Indonesia to advance His kingdom, so the enemy took this opportunity to deceive and divide us. The enemy oppressed our minds and brought frustration, took away our tenacity to pursue the Lord, confused our spiritual direction, took away our peace, gave us a spirit of apathy, brought up past struggles, and made us question what God brought us to. The enemy HATES when we boldly walk out the purpose and plan the Lord has placed on our hearts so he does all he can to deter us, and unfortunately we allowed him to do just that.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” -2 Corinthians 10:3-4
About a week later, we got together as a team, recognized this attack and called Satan out. We used the faith and authority we have in Christ to break the power of this attack over our lives. We got together one-on-one and openly discussed our hurts and resolved our issues with one another. We broke the enemy’s power through faith, prayer, resistance, and God’s love. While being a sister in Christ does not come easy, it is what God has called us into. I may not like my teammates every day, but I choose to love them nonetheless. Even though the Lord allowed these trials to come against my team, He also gave us strength to continue pursuing the kingdom through our struggles.
During our time in Bali, we were able to minister to fellow backpackers we met at our hostels, do yoga ministry, free healing, babysitting, street vendor ministry, prison ministry, and minister to one another. Some days, ministry was babysitting three boys to help a single mom have a much deserved break. Other days it was handing out encouraging notes to street vendors that get rejected day after day. We got to pour into women who were traveling, lost and hurting, and shine God’s light on their lives. We offered free healing outside of “spiritual healer” businesses. Some days, we were lucky to be able to pour into one another, speak life to each other, and have fun together as a team.
Even though Indonesia was a struggle for my team, God is still good. He brought us through some intense trials, both individually and collectively, but ultimately He used them to glorify His name. Bali is a very spiritual place—it’s the reason so many people travel there every year—but it lacks Jesus. I think God brought us to Bali to shine His love and His light with everyone we met. Even in our weakness, His name was made known.
Indonesia was the last country together for Team Diamonds. We traveled through 4 countries in Africa and 2 in Southeast Asia over the course of the last 5 months and I am so grateful for all of the memories we’ve shared. To these five brilliant women of God, thank you for allowing me to always be me, for giving me joy, for challenging me, for laughing at my dumb jokes, for supporting me when I needed it and for loving me unconditionally. I will forever be grateful for you.
Lots of love,
Britt
