Sometimes we are intentional with our decisions and what might come of them. And other times we’re more nonchalant. But who says God can’t do something with the mundane days?!
It’s honestly beautiful when he does. The other day I thought I was going on a casual walk to get some gelato and hangout with friends. But the Lord turned into a journey of sharing about his love, giving away my key and making new friends! It was unexpected, beautiful and exciting! I’m so grateful the Lord will use us even when our mission wasn’t to go out and share His love. Our mission was to get gelato, but here’s what happened…
During our squad leader training, the group of us made plans to go out that night to go back to Gelato Lab. This place has some of the best gelato And it had been on our minds since the last time we had gone (2 days prior). We had finished training that morning and we were all relaxing in the room.
Sidenote* At the beginning of the race we all got keys that were prayed over and a word was stamped into the key that they felt we needed to hear. My word was FREE, I wrote a blog about it a while back (When the Holy Spirit Called Me Out).
So we were in our room here in Cambodia talking about our keys and who had given theirs away. Then I casually said, “yeah, I wonder who is going to get my key.” And that was that. We moved onto talking about something else, and I didn’t think much of what I had just said.
A while later we were ready to head out the door. I was about to walk out then saw my key necklace on the edge of my bed. I hesitated then was like I might as well wear it. Thinking to myself, “this will look good with this shirt.” I wasn’t even thinking that I could be wearing it with the potential to give it away.
We all got downstairs and start talking to the Tuk Tuk drivers to take us where we wanted to go. But they wanted to charge us $4 and being on that World Race budget that just was not gonna work. So we tightened our chacos and started our walk to Gelato Lab.
We made it around the corner then hit a new market area we hadn’t explored yet, so we decided to take a look around. I kept walking around the booths and found myself in the very back corner. I wanted to take a look at the sarongs at this young girls’ booth. As soon as I leaned forward she gasped. It scared me at first then I realized she was looking at my key necklace.
She said, “wow, I love your necklace! I have earrings and necklace but no key, I love that. “
As soon as she said something about it I felt in my heart this was who I was supposed to give my key to. I asked her if she knew what the word on my key meant? She shook her head so I explained what FREE meant. And I also explained that somebody prayed over this key for me and I wanted to give it to her. As I started pulling it over my head she couldn’t believe what was happening.
As I handed it to her she was so happy. I loved watching her face light up! She continued to say thank you so much and gave me a hug! The way she continued to beam made me so happy!
Literally just a couple hours earlier I had wondered who I would someday give my key to and at the last minute decided to wear it that night. I’m so glad I did! To be honest, ever since I got the key I figured I would give it to somebody I had known all month and built a strong relationship with. Never did I expect it to go to a sweet 19 year old girl named Mary who I only knew for a few seconds. But the Lord likes to surprise me like that, and it’s so fun!
I left her booth with a sarong and so much excitement in my heart. I listened to the Lord and it felt so good! I celebrated what had just happened with my team. And as we headed down the street we ran into these teenagers all working at a yogurt shop. They were a fun group of people and we decided to stop to try their free samples of froyo (cant pass up on free froyo!) Next thing I know we are sharing the gospel with one of the young men. He ended up being a Christian but it was cool to make that connection and encourage him!
We finished the night finally getting that delicious gelato! If we had taken a Tuk Tuk like we had originally planned we would have still gotten gelato and I’m sure we would have had a good time but we wouldn’t be feeling as joyful as we did after our journey on foot that was so rewarding! I’m so thankful the Lord worked through the mundane of that night!
