I always wonder why I hesitate to do the things God wants me to do. Sometimes I wonder if it’s actually the Lord speaking to me, or if it is my own thoughts that are taking over. It is a struggle of my own desires over what the Lord wants me to do and who he wants to love on through me.
At debrief these past 4 days, there has been a lot of processing. With my team, with myself and most importantly with God. He has shown me all of the things that I have learned this month and continue to realize about his glory and goodness.
Yesterday, as a squad we all had one on ones with our squad mentors and leaders. It was a time for us to debrief with them and discuss the different struggles, growths and joys that God has been teaching us on the race. The meeting place was Starbucks, in Chile! Praissssse Jesus, I could use some Starbucks, a piece of home and a little jolt of energy for month two.
As two of my teammates and I walked in, we sat down in the corner and bought some coffees that brought me back to my Starbucks back at home. After settling in to write blogs, facetime family and have quiet time with God. I looked over and there was a girl sitting there, about the same age as us, with her bible and travel backpack. I felt the Lord pushing me to talk to her, but I hesitated for fear of what my other friends would think or if I was going to get rejected by her. Why did that thought even cross my mind? I’m never afraid to talk to people if its not about God? Isn’t the point of this trip and the rest of my life to share the love that God has shown me? I felt discouraged. Not because of God, but because of my lack of trust in God. Once these feelings started to creep in my teammate, Kimbra, turned to me and said “she looks like she speaks English we should talk to her.” Alright Jesus, I hear you loud and clear I know you want me talk to her. So then proceeded to introduce ourselves and talk to this girl! And I’m so glad we did.
Turns out she is from Texas and has been traveling in South America for three months by herself as a 20 year old! Wow! As my teammate went off to have her meeting, the girl, Shaley and I proceeded to talk for about an hour about our lives, families, some cool travel stories we had and how the Lord was working in our lives. Towards the end of our conversation I had to go to my meeting with my leader. So we exchanged phone numbers and I gave her my blog so she could follow our trip.
Later I talked with some teammates and the squad leaders about inviting her to worship that night. So I reached out to her and asked if she wanted to come and she said “yes of course!” She came in excited to join us, no doubt that she was walking into a group of 50 people that she had never met before. We were all worshipping together and I looked over as she had tears in eyes, the clear view that God was working in her heart. The night continued on with amazing worship. After Jay, one of our team coaches, spoke about giving up everything for the Lord and how Isaiah ran the first World Race when he gave up all that he had for the Lord, he picked up his cross and followed Jesus with everything.
At the end of the night we got into our groups and talked about the things we brought on the race that need to be released of or the things that are holding us back from serving the Lord with our whole heart. Shaley stayed and joined my team for team time as we each went around sharing our hearts and then continued to speak Truth over each other that Jesus died for our sins and that He Loves Us more than we know, that we are defined by Christ and not by the sin or hurt in our life. Towards the end my teammate, Sarah, asked Shaley if she wanted to share. Her face lit up and she said of course I do and just talked about her struggles and the past couple of months. She shared that she had felt like God was being silent and that she wasn’t able to hear him or see him much the past couple of weeks, she felt alone. She was still clinging to his Love but couldn’t see him. She continued to share about the verses she had been studying, Ephesians 6, where it talks about putting on the full armor of God. She talked about how that brought her so much peace about his provision and his divine protection of every one of his children. Our whole team gasped as a couple days before we had just finished a bible study on that exact scripture. This affirmed his plans and goodness. She shared that she had been longing for community and for sisters in Christ.
She found sisters in Christ in this moment, as she kept thanking us for having her and for loving her. My team and I kept saying the same thing as we were thankful that she was there sharing this time with us!
God brought us a sister in Christ. God brought Shaley a community of sisters and brothers. God brought me affirmation that I am supposed to be on the World Race. God affirmed that we need to put on the full Armor of God “Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes” (Ephesians 6:10-11).
The Lord provided peace for me that he will provide when we step out in faith. I can’t even find a reason for this “divine intervention” not to be from God. The same moment that a World Race team was in a small town in Chile for a few days we happened to run into a girl from Texas who the loved the Lord but was longing for a sign from the Lord and for a community of sisters.
God is always present, he may not always be talking to you 24/7. BUT he is always present and knows your heart more than anyone else ever will. His love is greater than you can ever know!
