Currently, we are in Sri Lanka and are gearing up to begin our manistry month. I’m stoked to have several weeks just being with the men of G squad; pouring into them and going through some deep identity and sin stuff, while also having a ton of fun and stepping out boldly into living as disciples.
I wanted to share a little testimony from our first guy night here in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
“The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
The first night at our man cave in Unawatuna, the manager Marco showed up with a Chinese family (an older man and his wife, their daughter and her husband). Marco was almost frantic as he asked us if we could give up two of the rooms there at the airbnb for the Chinese family. He wanted to move two rooms of us into two hotel rooms a couple kilometers away at no extra cost to us.
Marco had arranged rooms for this family at this hotel but the old man did not like the noise level from the road and was not happy with the booking.
Initially, I was not pleased at the thought of splitting our group of guys up for the night but Patrick and I reluctantly decided to go check the new place out to see if we were comfortable helping our new friend Marco out with his request.
Marco took us to the new place and it was actually really nice. There was definitely some road noise and a funky smell but the two rooms had an ocean view and blasting cold AC. We took just a second to think and ask the Lord about it and we agreed that helping Marco out and showing him some love-possibly leading to an open door for the Gospel was the thing to do. Marco is Buddhist and we desire to show him a loving witness. He comes from a shame/honor cultural system and had we not helped him out… it may have put him in a place of shame with the Chinese family. If we were the root of that then it might actually shut down our ability to share the love of Christ with him in word and deed–So we consented to moving our guys into the hotel for one night.
We got back to the airbnb let the guys know what was going on and my co leader Patrick and I volunteered to move for the night hoping that it would set an example of flexibility without gripe to our men. We grabbed the others and headed back to the new hotel.
Once we got there we dropped off our things and headed out to find some dinner. Most places were closed but we found one place with roti and chicken and various other Sri Lankan street food type items and sat down. Our waiter was awesome. He was Sri Lankan born and spoke great English. We got to spend a few minutes talking with him and laughing and then at the end of the dinner we were able to bless him with some extra funds and let him know how much Jesus loves him.
Walking back toward the hotel, we stopped into a food mart for just a second to see what they had and then we headed back out to the street to head home.
I bet we had only been walking about a minute when an older man on a bicycle came up behind me pointing at my arm and saying, “nun, nun, nun!” he was referencing the Arabic character for the letter N that I have tattooed on the back of my right arm.
I turned around and said “Yes, it’s a nun!” (for those unfamiliar: Nun, is the first letter of the Arabic word for Christian, “Nasrani).
I was actually a bit astounded that some random Sri Lankan guy knew what that character was called. He stopped to talk and I asked him if he was Muslim and he said yes. The guys were all asking him some questions about where he was from and then it hit me….. this random dude riding his bicycle down this road in Sri Lanka and asking about my tattoo wasn’t random at all. We should pray for this guy!
So, I asked if we could pray for any pain that he had in his back or anywhere else. He pointed at his right knee to communicate that it hurt and all of the guys circled around him, laid a hand on him and prayed for him. In that moment the finger of God touched him and healed his knee. There was no more pain!
We had the opportunity to share with him that the healing came from Isa (Jesus in Arabic). The smile on that man’s face was indescribable. It was the smile that only comes from being touched by the Star-breather.
As the man rode off on his bicycle, the dots began to connect in our minds. So many factors had come into play to get us there in that place at that specific time, so that the man would see my tattoo and stop and get touched by the healing love of Jesus.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we could walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10
Also, I am still in need of some funding for this time out equipping G SQUAD to do greater things for the kingdom. If you are interested in contributing, hit the donate button at the top of the blog page. Blessings!
