I have been at debrief since Wednesday night. Debrief is a time for my squad to come together and take time to rest in Christ, and encourage one another. It is basically a time to reflect on what God brought you through in your journey so far. During debrief, we have had nights of worship that have been spectacular.
Thursday night, our group had broken off into pairs to share struggles, be vulnerable, and just pray over each other. I walked over to Chandler and we began to reflect on our month in Haiti and the struggles we were carrying. Meanwhile, we noticed a lady standing near our group holding keys and crying. Me and Chan had pretty much finished up our time and decided to go talk to her. We figured that she was overwhelmed and just wanted to get in her car and leave, but we were all in her way. This actually was not the case.
As we began our conversation with her, we noticed communicating would be much harder than we thought seeing as how she spoke French. The problem was that I did not download the French language on my phone!!! (That is meant to be funny, it is okay to laugh). Anyway, she was so confused as to why many Americans were holding each other with their eyes closed, talking. Chan began to explain that we were with the World Race and that we were encouraging each other and just loving each other. We explained more about what we were doing and that I was about to play my guitar and we were all going to sing. We asked if she had time to stay and be with us. She replied with a suttle nod yes. During this whole conversation, she had tears streaming down her face.
We began our time of worship through song collectively. We sang loudly and boldly with the intent of making the most of Jesus! Meanwhile, this same French lady stood behind me, beside Chandler, crying her eyes out. She stayed the whole time of our worship.
Fast forward to Friday night. We had a time of praises through testimonies for a few minutes along with songs. When one of our coaches stood up to carry on with our lesson and her testimony, I noticed a lady with a chair walking over to sit in the back of our group. Our mentor, Megan, said hello and welcomed her beside her. Toni shared her story and I watched this lady who walked up. I could tell that she was having issues understanding the English language. The husband of Toni, Kerry, came up to share his story after his wife. As he stood boldly and told us about how the glory of God worked through his life, I noticed God doing a work in this lady’s life. At times, she let out a proud, “HALLELUJAH” or an, “AMEN!”. She stayed through the whole time.
As I sit and think about these two ladies, I notice that they had a hard time understanding what we were doing or saying in these times of worship. But the love of Jesus overcame the barrier of our languages these nights. These ladies saw the light of Jesus through my squad. I saw the genuine thirst these ladies had to experience what we had. I saw God working in their hearts. No, I wasnt a part of the end result. I do not know what happened with them after our sessions. But I know that God is working in their lives. I know that I am going to pray hard for these ladies, that they will continue to seek God with all their hearts!
It is beautiful to see that even through a time of rest, God still works through us, even when we do not see it!
Life is ministry, ministry is life.
Gladly,
Preston
