Hey everyone! I’m writing to you from India.. it’s crazy! I made it! Sadly, I won’t be able to disclose any information on my location or names of my hosts/contacts for identity and safety reasons. But I will be able to share some amazing stories from my team and other squad mates this month, so get excited!
I wanted to share our travel day story with you because it did NOT go as planned. Typically when things go awry I tend to lean out of it, close off, and internally process things. I promised myself that while on the race I would push myself, lean in, and be challenged with feeling uncomfortable.
I prayed some big prayers during our launch training. And I mean BIG. You know those “fall to your knees, I’ll do anything” kind of prayers. The prayers that when you wake up the next day you cringe and say… “Well maybe not anything, God.”
Well one thing’s for sure, when you pray for God to give you something that He’s already been putting on your heart – it’ll happen. Or better yet, when you pray for patience, God won’t just flat out make you the most patient person, but He’ll give you situations to be patient in. Or if you pray to be open-minded, He won’t give you an open mind, but rather give you opportunities to stretch yourself toward open mindedness.
So, after arriving to the airport 9 hours early ‘just to be safe’, to then have our flight be flat out cancelled was definitely one of those ‘opportunities’ for God to test me.
I’m not a person to evangelize. I’m not a person to even go up and to talk to strangers. I’m introverted and feel extremely awkward pushing my beliefs onto anybody – ever. I prayed that God would change that, to make me more bold and to be confident in who I am and whose I am, to be able to spread a love that is indescribable.
Our flight was cancelled and we spent 13 hours in the airport due to arriving early, losing luggage, and not having a ride to the hotel – but during those 13 hours our team came together, pushed our boundaries and leaned into being uncomfortable.
A few of us met a man, Kevin who was homeless and waiting in the airport to borrow somebody’s phone. He was seeking a rehab facility in Atlanta. We sat with him, prayed with him and called care facilities to get him set up with somebody that night.
We met a woman Janie, who was on her way to Colombia to serve as a missionary. She had her foot run over by a car the year before and had permanent nerve damage causing her to walk with a cane. She spoke with us of the countries she had visited, prayed blessings over us and even showed us pictures with her and Mother Teresa. She then let us put our hands on her and pray for healing over her foot and ankle.
We met a woman who was working in the airport, who joined our squad prayer circle when we were all feeling oppressed by the enemy. She shouted out praises and lifted us up.
One of our squad mates, Jackie had her luggage lost during the flight cancellation. She went the whole night and next day fretting over what she would do without any gear or medication in India. She had to run around Atlanta the next morning picking up supplies to hold her over until she could re-buy everything the airline lost. The next day, by chance, an airline employee found her luggage. During this time, they bonded and Jackie was able to pray healing over this woman and cure her of a long afflicting ailment.
This time spent in the airport was long, tiring and full of emotional struggles, but we all took the opportunity to press into what God was doing and stretch ourselves. I never talk to strangers – let alone pray for healing over them. And here I was bouncing around the airport calling rehab facilities for Kevin and chatting with Janie about Mother Teresa.. What is happening to me? What is happening to all of us?
I prayed some big prayers, and I am already seeing the fruit of some hard asked questions. This is just the beginning. Now I’m sitting in preparation for the rest of these ‘big’ prayers to be answered.. and I know they won’t be answered the way I want them to be. God will give me opportunity and situations to test me and stretch me.. let me be honest, it’s scary! I’m about to leave to spend weeks in rural Indian villages with people who may have never heard the name Jesus, let alone seen a white person. There’s persecution, rejection, and warfare at stake.. it’s real.. and it’s scary! But this is what I asked for. This is what I desperately want.
So it begins. I don’t know what I’m about to get myself into and I’m freaking out a bit. But I serve a good God and even though I’m faced with challenges, God will bring fruit and opportunity from that. So I will continue to press into the hardship and sit in the uncomfortable and awkward situations because I’m being made new.
My terrifying big prayers are being answered by an even bigger God.
