TC: Praying for People in a Publix Grocery Store??
From August 8-18 I got to spend some time in Gainesville, Georgia at training camp for the World Race. Essentially, it was a time of physical, spiritual, and emotional preparation for the World Race (which is just 6 weeks away – AH). You’ll hear more about those topics in other blogs, but here I would like to just focus on our crazy experiences in a grocery store:
On a Tuesday afternoon we were sent out to share some Jesus-love with the Gainesville community. We were given a couple of instructions, but overall we were essentially just told to follow Holy Spirit’s leading – follow where He goes and say whatever He wanted us to say.
So that’s what we did, and it was AMAZING.
We had so many cool experiences, but for the sake of our attention spans, I’ll just share two.
On our way home from our day out (literally after we had intentionally gone out and done ministry) we stopped by a grocery store to get some instant coffee for a teammate, as the much needed drink wasn’t overly available at training camp.
As we were walking in one of my teammates noticed a lady walking out with a leg brace on. Immediately he asked what had happened to her leg and if we could pray for her.
Her face was beaming with excitement and love and she was so willing to allow us to pray for her. Not only that, but this sweet young woman opened up her heart to us. She shared with us that she had gotten out of an abusive relationship that day and that it’s such a coincidence that we happened to run into her today. We assured her that this was no coincidence, but that it was instead the God of the Universe who arranged for each of us from all over North America to be in this grocery store in Gainesville at this time, just to tell her that He loves her and that He’s there.
Within a moment we were all standing in a circle, holding hands, and praying for her as she wiped away tears from her eyes.
It was a beautiful example of true love and friendship that came about in that moment. This stranger became my sister, and I got to tell her just how much our Papa loves her.
As we made our way into the grocery store and down the coffee isle, the six of us were frantically searching for instant coffee for our teammate. Looking a little dramatic, a couple walked by and the woman asked curiously “Is this a scavenger hunt or something?”.
Without even giving us time to answer, one of our other teammates jumped in — “CAN WE PRAY FOR YOU?”
hahahah the whole thing was so funny and sudden, but this sweet couple said yes!?In fact, the two of them were Christians and pastors! They were planting a church and had their first service on Sunday. The man said that he was feeling a bit apprehensive and was asking God for some sort of sign to know that he was doing what Papa wanted for him – I think we all knew that this was it!
Again, within a moment we were all standing in a circle praying for these beautiful souls who just wanted to do what Papa had for them.
That was a beautiful day of learning about two things:
1. People are so willing to let God into their lives – they just need to be asked
2. Ministry can take place anywhere and everywhere – we just need to be willing to let ourselves see the world like our Papa does.
On that day we were also told to go out and make a music video documenting our events. It makes me smile to be able to see these stories and see how much God moved that day <3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N7xlK2Naqx6UUkG20iWA7u89EYgxw7du/view?usp=sharing
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On another note, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING.
In the past two weeks I’ve had ~$6,000 given or pledged to me meaning I’M 93% FUNDED! In my last blog I said that I was praying to be fully funded before I left, and while I wrote it out, there was very little faith associated with it. With that being said GOD IS SO FAITHFUL! He continues to blow my mind everyday and love me so much more than I deserve. One way that He’s done that is through you.
If you’ve given, and you beautiful people know who you are, thank you from the very bottom of my heart. To see that people here have the same heart to reach the world with Christ’s love and partner with me to see that happen is such a beautiful thing.
Please consider praying and asking Papa if this is a ministry He wants you to invest in! I’m SO CLOSE to being fully funded and I would absolutely love to see it happen before I leave in 3.5 weeks (ah!!).
Again, THANK YOU! I’m not worthy of this love, but I thank Papa that He’s given me you guys to experience it through.
