There is such a big difference between hearing and listening and I think we all know, but choose to ignore it. For simplicity sake, I’ll explain the difference, at least my version of it.
Hearing: Actually hearing someone physically, but not truly taking the time/effort to understand or interpret what was said. Typically the words are not absorbed and there is not responsive action to follow.
Listening: Being present in the moment with the one speaking. Taking time to receive the words in the moment and to also process later. Typically there is a follow-up conversation (or more than one) and often times a responsive action.
Sometimes in the moment we realize when we’re just hearing and should be listening and sometimes we don’t. I also think sometimes your heart listens and your mind hears, especially when you’re talking to God. That was a hard connection for me to make and express (trust me, I cried in a cafe trying to explain it to my team).
When we first got to Indonesia we had debrief and training and then the rest of the month was ATL (ask the Lord) for where in Indonesia our team would choose to go. The time break down for the rest of the month was around 2.5 weeks and we knew we had to travel to Jakarta on the Island of Java by the end of the month to fly to our next country. For reference, we were on Bali for debrief and Java is one island East of Bali. One of our teammates has a connection on the island Lombok which is one island West of Bali. Originally we had planned to go to Lombok for the full 2 weeks and then head to Jakarta from there so that we could meet up with the connection. We were all on board with that plan. After debrief we prayed to see if God still wanted us to go to Lombok. As we were going around the circle of our team saying what we heard, I realized I was being led somewhere different than the majority of the team. I was nervous to share because I thought maybe I heard wrong or I didn’t want to go against what the rest of the team wanted/heard. However, I did share and I’m so glad I did.
When we were praying a location in East Java was highlighted for me by a beam of light, I saw a waterfall with a rope bridge in front of it, and I also got the letter K. However, with all of that, I also felt like we should go straight there and not to Lombok. Someone else also got East Java so that was confirmed for me and I was glad I had shared. However, we both felt like it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if we went to Lombok because we didn’t get a hard no, it was more like God saying “eh, well, you can try it.” So, we tentatively planned to do a week on Lombok and about a week in East Java.
Flash forward: We’re almost done with our time on Lombok and we’re discussing travel plans. Logically it doesn’t make sense for us to stop in East Java, it would make more sense to stay on Lombok a few more days and then head straight to Jakarta a day early. We talked about maybe both of us hearing East Java was just a little confirmation we needed on hearing from the Lord and we didn’t actually need to go there. I am a very logical thinker so I wanted that to be the reason so we could go with the fact that East Java didn’t make sense logistically. However, that’s not what my heart was telling me. I was busy listening to my mind and only hearing my heart because they weren’t connecting (that’s when I cried in the cafe). So finally, amidst the tears, I shared that I still felt like we needed to go to East Java, even if it would be for less than a week, even if it didn’t make sense logistically. The team was on board so we decided we would make it happen. We still had no idea where the letter K fit in though.
The next night we had supper with our connection and told them about our East Java plans and they told us (before even knowing about the letter K) that we should go to a city called Kediri because there is a village there that has become the English village where people from all over Indonesia go to learn English. As soon as all of those dots started connecting I wanted to have all of the emotions on the spot because I was so excited. They actually know someone that lives there too so they gave us their contact information so we could make another connection and learn about how we could make the biggest impact while we’re there.
EVERYTHING fell into place so easily planning to go there, it was amazing and just an absolute example of God’s provision. We did have to spend from 11pm-4am on a bus station porch because there was miscommunication that the bus wasn’t actually going overnight all the way to Kediri, but even that was a fun team experience.
Ugh it was so amazing, I wish we could have spent another month there because 5 days was not enough time. We met so many incredible people. Everyone was so kind and hospitable and many people were quite open so that was very encouraging for our ministry. The actual village we were in is called Pare and the English village is Kampung Inggris. It was really cool.
This was our first ATL month and it was an absolutely incredible experience where we were able to trust God and His provision as well as trusting the Spirit in ourselves and each other. And I learned that I need to make sure I am conscious about listening to my heart and making that connection to my mind.
Ugh, it was so good! I’m still just beaming from how amazing that village and those people are.
