This month we’re having an ATL month. No, my southern friends — we’re not coming home & working in Atlanta. ATL is World Race lingo for Ask The Lord.
Whaaaaaaaaaat????
I know…I wondered the same thing. It means that instead of having a host & planned ministry this month, we’re just going to ask the Lord where He wants us to go, then we’re just gonna go for it & trust that He’ll work out the details.
Gutsy, I know — but it’s great.
I guess I should further explain something we do on the race called listening prayer. This is a concept I was somewhat familiar with but the terminology & certainty of it was very new.
If you think all religions are the same, I submit to you this simple concept that differs my faith from most religions you know: relationship. I don’t believe in some vague intelligent designer or an all powerful god who sits grouchily on his throne, waiting to hit me with lightening bolts if I mess up. Nor is He a cruel master, taunting people & ruining lives for fun. He’s also not a sedentary old man with a beard, uncaring of who I am or what’s going on with me.
My God is alive, well, & intimately involved in my life. As in — He actually knows what my deal is & cares to hear about it.
I am not just a number to God.
When I asked Him in June of ’99 to forgive my sin & to save me from eternal life apart from Him, He did more than give me a get out of jail free card from hell. He actually adopted me. Made me His own.
This is a gift available to every person in the world. If you wanna talk about that, message me.
But what I want to talk about is the relationship aspect of having the almighty Creator of the universe as a Father. It’s kind of a big deal. But at the same time, it can become totally normal, because God is a good Dad, & wants to be involved in my life. So we talk, just like in any relationship. & just like in any relationship, the more I get to know Him, the more I love Him & understand His love for me.
However. Solid relationships do take time to deepen. They take time to build trust. They take time to prove strong through the storms. They take time to communicate optimally. & sometimes they even take one person thinking they’re not sure if they’re still in & the other One having to pursue them & love them even when the person running away is most unloveable.
The running is not on God’s side, only on mine. Learning to both talk to Him about EVERYTHING (not usually a problem for me — He can’t get me to shut up most of the time 😉 ), but also learning to listen to His voice. To see Him for Who He is & what He does for me.
Those of you who are freaked out that I think I hear the voice of God — chill. It’s not an audible voice.
But. If God wants to hear from us & wants to lead us…if He wants us to ask Him for help & to consider Him in all our ways, then a natural conclusion is that He would in some way speak to us. He would have a way to guide our hearts without making us robots who just do His bidding. So what does that look like?
The World Race introduced one aspect of this as listening prayer. So instead of just praying for help or guidance & then going on your way, it’s praying & then being still & waiting for a response.
Again…not audible.
Now, when they first talked to us about this, I agreed with the concept but was skeptical of the application. These people were praying & certain words or pictures would come to mind, & that’s what they were attributing to God speaking to them. Honestly, I think it can happen that way, but it doesn’t go down like that for me.
But do I think God leads me? Yeah, definitely! I would say mine looks a little more like what you might call an impression. I feel in my gut like He wants me to do something, & that’s happened that way for years. Most recently we had a leadership development weekend with our squad & while we were singing, I felt really strongly like I needed to go pray for my friend. So I went to her, put my arm around her, & began praying, only to find her sobbing.
The next day, that friend told me about some of the big things she had going on in her life & how she had prayed that God would send her someone who didn’t notice her tears to come pray for her. & hey — that was me. Definitely a God-thing. So that’s just a recent example of how God speaks to me.
But on the race, we practice this listening prayer. We ask God for something & expect direction & outcomes, etc. On one hand it’s kinda gutsy, on the other — why is it strange to expect your Father to answer? My biggest deal is to not demand a response, but just to ask.
He never seems to respond to me during those times of prayer, but He has responded to others, & I could tell you some pretty cool stories of how God used those times of listening prayer to lead us to cool places.
But this month is the best version of ATL I could imagine.
So they fly us to Sarajevo, we spend the night as a squad, & then our 4 teams are left on our own to figure out the next step. One team had already planned out what they were doing & it sounded amazing. Others had less certain plans but had direction. We…didn’t have a lot.
When we began ATL, our listening prayer was pretty interesting. Responses ranged from things like refugees & a tunnel to wrinkly old people.
I know. Weird.
But that’s the thing about asking the Lord…His thought & ways are different than ours, so who are we to say what’s right & what’s weird? We just remember those things & go from there. & we keep praying.
So we spent an extra day in Sarajevo to pray. One of the things Ryan, our team leader, felt really strongly about was going to the local church & asking if anyone in town needed help. It’s the race — ministry can look like helping people with just about anything.
The only church in town is a Catholic church, so exhausted as we were from the continental change, we drug ourselves to that church & tried to find English-speakers.
There was a nun who spoke like…4 languages…but none of them were English.
She did, however, direct us to a man who was selling something at the back of the church. He was the only one around who could speak our language, so Ryan approached him, hoping to get some local connection & give our team some purpose.
Enter stage left our friend Tarik.
He not only spoke English, but it turns out he’s protestant & though there wasn’t anything in town for us, he did know of another church 3 hours north that might need help. He gave us the number & Ryan called. Then he spent the rest of the day giving us a free tour of Sarajevo.
Now, the whole point of ATL is to rely on God to take us to a place where He wants us to serve. Here, He gives Ryan an insistent desire to go to the Catholic church, then He gives us a contact, & then as a bonus, a free tour guide. That is some serious God-intervention.
So Ryan calls this contact. She doesn’t sound super interested, but says she’ll talk to the pastor.
Later I heard her side of the story & that day she was utterly exhausted & almost didn’t call him because she desperately needed a little rest.
But she did call him, & then she called us back & told us that the pastor wanted us to come for a meeting the next day & then they would decide if they had anything for us to do there. Less than 24hours later we were on a bus to Tuzla.
Funny…I never dreamed there would be a small city in Bosnia that could capture my heart the way Tuzla has.
We arrived at the train station practically holding our breath…had we come all this way for nothing?
The woman from the phone came to pick us up & so did the pastor. They both seemed nice enough, so we threw our bags in the vehicles of these perfect strangers & went with them to their church…which was actually an apartment.
There we sat down & had a meeting immediately. It was very strange as we were all slightly on edge. Them because — who the heck were these Americans looking to help a church? Were we for real? & us because — oh man, we hoped we’d found a good place to connect to & partner with.
Turns out there really was nothing to worry about in the least.
They told us about themselves — who they are. What they’re about. & they made it clear that they didn’t know if they had anything for us, but the more we spoke it seemed that we were going stay — for a week at least — if not more.
On our side there was sign after sign that this was the place. For one, we’re always on a tight budget & these guys offered us all to stay at the church for free! They also fed us that very first day — pizza! Do you know how good pizza tastes after 5 months in Asia?? How much more evidence did we need that they were our people? 😉 & finally, it was the ministry opportunities they spoke of.
We would begin immediately — that very day — with math & English classes, & then the next morning we would go to the home for the elderly. That’s right — wrinkly old people — just like from the listening prayer!! & even more exciting, on the weekend we would join them in the refugee corridor — also from our listening prayer!
Our hearts were ignited with excitement & assurance that our God had answered our prayers. This was our place & even though they were still uncertain about us, they still welcomed us with open arms & invited us into their family. It was unbelievable & yet so like our God.
& this is only the beginning of my team’s story with the small city of Tuzla. It has already become one of the most precious places of our acquaintance, & I think you might feel the same way as I tell you more in the coming days. God chose Tuzla for us & we will forever be grateful for this beautiful answer to our prayer. So don’t be afraid to ATL — it might change your life for more good than you could’ve imagined 🙂
