Faith Day. Something I have been avoiding since Sri Lanka, month three. What is Faith Day? Faith Day is something we are asked to try at least once on the Race. It is based off of Matthew 10 where Jesus tells His disciples to go out without money or anything else and He will provide for their needs, and we basically do just that, all the while praying for Him to direct our steps and lead us to people to talk to.
There are a few reasons why this did not really appeal to me. First off, confession: I don’t really like fasting. Although I have done it, I don’t like being hungry (ask any of my teammates, who know I’m the one to go to for snacks on travel days. Or my mom, with whom I am always eating when we are on Skype). But on the other hand, I didn’t feel comfortable asking for food when I am able to buy it myself. We fundraised for a reason, right? Not just to be able to eat, but also not to be a burden to the people around us. So, I thought, if someone gives me food, great. If not, I am prepared to spend the majority of the day fasting.
In the morning, we prayed about what we should do and who we should go with. I felt led to go paint in the park, in hopes that it would open conversation. I could even invite people to paint with me. Andrea felt led to go near the water, and that her day might include some kind of music. Since the waterfront is near the park, we decided to walk there together. Initially we thought we would split up, but we ended up staying together the rest of the day.
We sat down in the park, Andrea read her Bible and I painted. We began greeting the people who passed by and eventually a woman stopped to ask about my painting.
Lady: What are you painting?
Me: I’m painting the world. (I show her)
Lady: That is not the world, that is your head world.
Me: I know, I am not a good painter (thinking she was just criticising my drawing)
Lady: Look (pointing out ahead of me) That is the world. Paint what you see. And write Baku under it.
She left before I could share much more, but I took her words as a spiritual lesson too. That I should focus on here and now, the world around me, and not just on the future. I know I love the idea of the world, but I am not always good at loving the individuals that make up that whole.
(I drew what she said, but she never came back)
As we sat, Andrea and I continued to talk. An old man gave us a piece of candy, but besides that no one had given us any food. I had brought three dollars with me because I had planned on buying some paper for painting. But I never came across a place to buy paper, and in the end, I never needed it.
I started to get really hungry, and we were sitting right across from a doner stand (a doner is kind of like a beef/chicken wrap). They only cost $1. I was so tempted to just walk over and buy a doner. It would have been so easy to just provide for myself at that moment, but I knew it wasn’t what I set out to do. Jesus fasted for 40 days. And yes, maybe he was also hungry after day one. But He kept going. He could have turned rocks into bread easier than I could have walked the 10 steps to the doner place. But He persevered because that is what He set out to do. Same with the cross. He could have called upon angels to save Him but He didn’t; He endured all temptation and He went to the cross. He didn’t give up.
(The doner place that taunted me)
I have fought a lot with this temptation to provide for myself instead of waiting on His timing. But God asks for my trust, and He is to be my provider if I have patience and endurance to wait.
This is what Andrea and I reflected on and talked about while we sat there in the park. While, as I mentioned, I do not like fasting, it has a way of setting your mind on things above and the quality of our conversation was so good that afternoon. And I think that if the story had ended there, I would have taken it as a good day that was meant for nothing more than being reminded of some spiritual truths I had let slip from the forefront of my mind. But that wasn’t the end of the story.
After a while, Andrea walked into a nearby mall to go to the bathroom. Then we decided to walk around the food court, hoping either to find some decent looking leftovers, or better yet, be offered a meal. Side note: hoping to snag some leftovers was not completely crazy; just the day before we had rescued a nearly-untouched nutella ice cream sundae that someone had left behind for some reason. Anyways, we walk around once, spotted nothing, then walked upstairs around the movie theater and bowling alley just to check it out. Then we came back down and walked around again. I started to feel convicted that we were not acting in faith, we were seeking something out on our own, and just letting our appetites rule the day. This was not the point of Faith Day. So we stopped and we decided to pray, asking God whether we should we stay or go. I felt that we should stay, sit at a green table nearby, and read Scripture aloud, particularly verses about God’s provision. We did this for about 20-30 minutes reading and praying along with what the verses said. Then we heard some of our friends walk by who were also doing a Faith Day and had a similar idea as us with the food court (and had also had no luck so far). Once they walked off, the table next to us got up and had left, like 8 things of pizza crust. The table busser was hovering, ready to clean it when I asked the woman, “Can we have your pizza crust?” She said yes and we were so happy (we were so hungry at this point). We waved at our friends and raised the pizza crust in triumph, ready to share (only one other person was as shameless and unsanitary as us 😉 but whatever, more for us hahah). As we sat eating our pizza crust with joy, a man came up and gave us the remaining half of his still-hot tea and four sugar cubes. We assumed he saw us asking for the pizza crust and took pity on us. So we said thank you humbly, knowing he probably thought we were hobos, and laughed and laughed as we shared the tea that was actually very good. I started to paint him a thank you card but about 5 minutes later, he and his friend were getting up to leave. When he came over, he gave us a new, fresh doner which he had bought for us!!!
!!!!!!
A doner! The exact same food I was so tempted to buy for myself while we were sitting in the park! And God provided it after we prayed and read His word!!! We were absolutely stunned and grateful beyond words. After talking for a while as I finished up the painting, we eventually asked them to sit down with us. They were two Muslim men from Iraq. We talked about traveling, religion, our families, and even our love lives (in a respectful, not weird way). Later on, they bought us coffee and water, which was also crazy, because Andrea didn’t bring water (in faith that it would be provided) and as for me, when I left the hostel, I had resisted having a third cup of coffee, because I thought it was cheating (like trying to stock up on food and caffeine). But in my head I “knew” the likelihood of being given free coffee was slim. And yet!! Here were both these beautiful beverages right before our eyes!
I came into Faith Day with low expectations, open to the idea of fasting from 11 am to 8 pm though I wasn’t excited about it. But God so surpassed my expectations in every way. Even as I type out this blog, Andrea and I continue to recall details that blow our minds.
(Me and Andrea at the end of the day. We also went to the water and found people playing music after all.)
We’re in the middle of our debrief now in Baku, Azerbaijan. More updates soon to come!
