It seems like each new place we go I fall more in love with the place and the people. Indonesia was amazing and the Lord used us to plant so many seeds. I learned a lot about myself that first month and Papa God starting working on my identity issues. The first debrief in KL, Malaysia was so good for me. Pops stoked a fire in my heart for feasting on as much of His Word and spirit as I could take….which ended up getting me ready to step into the streets of India with Him.
In India Papa God surpassed any box of expectation that I could have dared to put Him in…we saw hundreds physically healed and were a part of planting even more seeds. Tilling and watering until Papa is ready to harvest. Our time in India during manistry month solidified my identity in Christ and also tore down more walls that I didn’t even know where there. Walls of anger toward God from events in my past. Having a team of amazing guys speaking into my life and encouraging me was so beneficial. The Lord walked me through several inner healing sessions that I didn’t even think were going to happen. I say all this to say that in India I learned the power of meeting my Papa somewhere in my imagination and letting Him speak truth and healing into my heart.
We had two days in Yangon, Myanmar before heading up here into the mountains and I met some amazing people at the hostel we were staying at. This is the story of some healing that our gracious and loving Father brought to one of his sweet daughters during the last morning that we were there.
John-Morgan and I were sitting out front of the hostel praising God on the street and a couple girls come out and sit down to smoke and to listen to us play and sing. One of the girls was named Alex. Her cultural background is Albanian but has lived in London the majority of her life. She is 25. So, we get to talking yesterday after the praise session because a local man went to buy himself breakfast and came back by us praising..before we had stopped to talk….looked at me and offered me the breakfast he had just bought for himself. This blew Alex’s mind. She was like what the heck he just bought that for himself and then offered it to you. I knew he had done this because he had sensed the presence of the Father in that street. So, I told her that what that man did was a great example of how God provides. She then asked what we were doing in Myanmar and so I told her we were Christians traveling and loving on people and praying for people.
She then let me know that she had realized that we were singing praise. Then I showed her some pics from the Akilabad. So, in the process of showing her the pics she tells me that her mom is Christian and that she used to go to church but stopped going a good while ago and that she doesn’t read the Bible but she prays still. She didn’t necessarily seem like she wanted to totally identify as a Christian though. So I asked her what made her quit going to church and she got transparent with me about her story of being baptized..her family being baptized…how she went to a Christian school and how the teachers had stressed explicitly that you couldn’t be a “lukewarm” follower of Christ. So when she got to college and became sexually active and began to party a little she got to a point where she felt like she wasn’t good enough to come back to a serious seeking relationship with the Father. She fell out of seeking and felt condemned. She began living for whatever she wanted and felt like living for.
So I’m like holy crap Papa you put the right person in front of me to tell my story to. So I told her that I’d love to share my story with her but that it would take some time. She said she would love to hear it but that she was meeting a friend pretty soon so we settled it at that if I saw her again we’d sit down and finish the convo. So John-Morgan and I go about the rest of our day and didn’t see her until later that night on our way to go grab some icecream. I told her if she was up when I got back we could talk. So we got icecream then walked down to the docks and watched some guys play a sport that looked like mini soccer or something. When we got back she had already gone to bed. So I saw her that next morning and we made some time to finish. I go through telling her my entire story in a super transparent way. So that she could see how bad I had gotten. So that in the end maybe she’d just find some encouragement and hope in the thought that she had a Papa who loved her with a burning passion and who just wanted to sit and talk with her.
After I got done telling my story, I spoke some life into her regarding how worth it she was and that as Jesus received every lash and as his skin was ripped from His body and every nail was driven that He saw an image flashing through His mind of me and of her and of everyone else and He knew that we were so worth it. So worth the suffering. So worth putting His Father’s agenda above His. Then she goes ” I was just feeling like I needed to pray”…and asked if I would pray for her….so I asked if there was anything specific she wanted me to pray for and she said she didn’t know. So I just began praying. I prayed that Papa show her that He was both the perfect mother and Father and that He would instill in her the worth that He saw in her and went on for a bit then Papa told me to hush and let him talk to her directly. So I just asked her to imagine standing with Him and told her to ask him what He wanted her to know. So I just sat and quietly prayed in tongues as she had her experience with her Father. I watched as she began to cry. She was just getting wrecked in the most awesome way by Papa.
After a good while she opened her eyes and I asked her if He gave her anything….she then told me that she hadn’t felt super loved or affirmed by her father and that she couldn’t remember him being very playful with her….while in prayer she got a picture of sitting on a giant’s shoulders and she said she could feel the love and playfulness coming into her heart. Then she told me that her past sexual partners had all wanted to marry or stay with her for a long time and that she would run from it. She had been asking questions internally about that and hadn’t figured it out, but her Daddy spoke to her and told her that she hadn’t received that Father’s love from her physical dad and that was the reason she wanted all these guys to fall in love with her. I was able to speak into that a bit by reaffirming that the hole she sought to fill could only be filled by the Father. Then I let her know that Papa was desiring for her to be a Daddy’s girl. That He wanted to fill that role.
So, then I asked if I could give her something and she said “yes” so I pulled out my bible and jerked the bookmarks out and slid it across the table to her. I think she was deeply touched when she realized it was mine. Then she said she knew I was going to give her a bible. She just didn’t know it would be mine. I asked how she knew and she said that just before I asked to give her something…she thought to herself that if she had a bible she would read it on the overnight bus tonight. I was like Papa your too good. That bible came from the U.S. all the way to Yangon- just for her. At the end of the conversation I asked if I could give her a big hug and she said… ” I was just thinking that I’m going to give Soloman a big hug” so I stood up and opened my arms wide and she gave the the biggest cheek kiss ever and embraced me. I felt so humbled to be the physical stand in for the Lord. This entire story blessed me so stinkin much. Watching her receive pure Father-like love was so amazing. I’m so glad that I got to be a small part of her encountering the Father’s heart. Wow Pops…..you set da roof on fire.
