In my last blog I left you guys with a little bit of uncertainty and not a lot of plans (hence “AND WE HAVE NO PLANS”). Well, in this blog you get to see what God had planned for us!!
While in Penang we spent three days preparing our hearts and minds, and asking God where He wanted us to go next. We asked God for unity in decision making as there were 14 of us, and for 14 people to decide on anything – let alone where in the country to travel to – is usually pretty difficult. As we came together one morning to pray and discuss what Papa had been showing us, it became VERY clear that we were to head North.
One teammate literally got a picture of a map with only the letter ‘N’ written in it. Another piped up and said their mom had brought them a compass pointing North just before launch that he had been thinking of. Another was told to go “up”. Another had the idea of going to an island named Langkawi – an island that happened to be north of Penang. All the while, other teammates piped in “Me too!”, “Same!!”, “that’s really funny because I heard exactly the same thing”. And all of a sudden, the 14 of us, who just days earlier had no idea what we were doing in Malaysia, now knew we all had to move North.
The next step was to decide when we would head out. This decision seemed a little less guided until we realized that half of us were to take our time going, stopping along the way to get there, and the other half were to go directly to the island. So that’s what we did! We all hopped on the ferry together, and then the train to Kedah, where we would take the ferry to Langkawi. While on the train we met a man who used to live in Langkawi and he offered to show us how to get there – so sweet! At the same time, a girl about my age sat down beside me and asked “are you going to Langkawi?” “Yeah!” “Wow, have fun there”. “What about you?” “Oh I think I’m going to Thailand.” “We just came from there!”
Within a couple of minutes our two new friends had become friends themselves and had teamed up to help us get to Langkawi. They walked with us off the train, rode with us to the ferry, and personally made sure that we had the right tickets to get there. Then, let’s call her Heya, decided she was going to Langkawi too!
“What??? Weren’t you going to Thailand when we were talking on the train?”
“Yeah, but hearing you guys talk about Langkawi made me want to go too!”
So within a train ride we went from not knowing really how to get to Langkawi to having a friend who we were travelling with there! Now we’re here, safe and sound, and with a new friend that we get to hang out with!
Our sweet new friend, Heya, seems like a friend we’ve known our whole lives and I’m so excited to get to know her better, and get to know her heart and mind a little more. Pray for us as we continue to grow in friendship.
One of our teammates said today “what if the whole reason God had us come to Langkawi, and the whole reason He had us go immediately without the rest of the group, was just so we could meet Heya?”
What if?
Wow. Pray for soft hearts, for genuine friendships, and for vulnerable truth to be given in trust.
