Today I woke up with a mission in mind of praying for certain people. I was unsure if it was God or me so I waited to talk about it till after our group prayer. While waiting for everyone to pray this morning I read through Psalm 91 and just was reminded of Gods goodness and protection. When we began praying together I felt as though God wanted me to pray for certain things and people. One woman specifically was Dita (our ice cream dealer). I also felt led to pray for some kids. Then I felt like God told me He wanted to give me scripture to use, but that someone else would give it to me. (I doubted this was actually from God.) Then when everyone stopped praying we started to share what we felt we were supposed to do. I talked about the kids and one girl said she was actually thinking about praying at the playground(Sarah H). Sweet. Confirmation!
Still nobody had mentioned scripture yet so I asked one of the girls what she had read. She told me and I didn’t feel like that was for me, and then another girl chimed in and said, “Sarah, I heard Psalm 91 for you.” I was blown away and so stoked! “For me?” I said. “Yes, specifically for you Sarah Ann.” Not only did I read that passage just a few moments ago, but it’s a passage I spent a lot of time memorizing before the race. This was the reason.
We all set out on our separate ways and I began with the other Sarah and I mentioned to her another thing I felt like I would be doing today was a lot of waiting. She said that was perfect because she just saw herself sitting on a bench and praying for a while. We sat at a bench, prayed, prayer walked, and sat on a lot of curbs and prayed there. Finally I felt it was time to go to the ice cream place to pray for Dita. She doesn’t speak English except for a couple words so I had to write down some phrases. When I asked if I could pray for her (this time in Albanian) she was so happy she hugged us and kissed our cheeks. Not like the standard European greeting, but a straight up smooch on the cheek. When we finished praying she offered us some of the treats which we turned down. (We later came back to try and give her the Psalm 91 passage, but she was busy. This time we took the free snack though.)
But wait. There’s more!
We felt as though the day was good enough and that our ministry time was done so Sarah and I headed back to the church. A few moments later, A man walked in. He said he wanted to learn English, to which I had no response because I didn’t think it would be a good idea to teach a man. I was silent at first and I even asked God to show us what to say as Sarah and I looked at each other confused on what to do.
He began telling us his story of how he used to be a member of the church and play piano, but he struggles with his faith now. His family is Muslim, so you can imagine the confusion. He asked if the Piano worked and asked to play. He began to play so beautifully as we prayed in silence. Another team walked in to see us and the man and I told them what I knew as we all sat together just listening. After a couple songs I asked him if we could pray for him and of course he said yes. We circled around him and prayed what we felt led to pray. He began to tell us more. His name was Milo (Me-low) He was broken by his finances, divorce, and family. He didn’t feel as though his faith was strong enough for the church.
One girl spoke up about how Church was not meant for the perfect and that the times we feel weak are the times we need to go the most. He was still so caught up on his weakened faith. We let him continue on the piano. God wasn’t done yet. I still had Psalm 91. Milo was the person I was supposed to share with. After a couple more songs I stood up, Albanian Bible in Hand and told him to read this chapter. He read Psalm 91 out loud as I prayed that faith might come through hearing and hearing through the word of God. (Romans 10:17) When he finished I simply asked what it meant to him. He said, “God is the protector.” And what came out of my mouth next was God and not myself, “God wants to share this with you because He wants to protect you and be there for you through all of your struggles. He will be there for you and hide you under His wings if you let Him.” I didn’t notice at the time, but another girl said that Milo’s face lit up during that conversation.
It’s crazy to think about because I didn’t even have anything planned to say. I just stood there and let God do His thing.
We let him continue playing for a while longer and when he was leaving we invited Him to church on Sunday. He seemed happy to be invited and excited to join. So please be in prayer for his faith to be strengthened and feel loved and welcomed home into God’s arms. Pray that he would come back and be welcomed by the community and that him and his whole family be transformed.
Sometimes just a simple prayer can brighten somebody’s day, sometimes a short passage of scripture can speak more than you can. So don’t think you are not capable to have God work through you. He will if you let Him.
