As a last hoo-rah for our last day in America, a few of my teammates and I decided to go out to a super nice restaurant for a delicious last meal. When our Uber arrived at the Chick-Fil-A, we hopped out to realize… it was the first EVER Chick-Fil-A that opened originally in 1946. EVER PEOPLE.
You’re probably wondering what on earth Chick-Fil-A has to do with anything right now. I always joke that it’s “the Lord’s chicken” obviously because it tastes heavenly, and because Chick-Fil-A has remained a Christ centered fast food chain since they first opened. God showed up there today in a way I didn’t expect.
After we ordered our food we were settling into a booth and I noticed a woman sitting a few booths down. She was holding a newborn baby and had a two year old in her lap. She caught my attention. I heard God tell me to go pray for her, because she was going through something really difficult right now. I was nervous- you never know how people are going to react when a complete stranger approaches them in public. But I walked over to her anyways, trusting what the Lord had just told me.
I simply said “Hey, this might seem weird but God just told me that there’s something really difficult that you’re going through right now. I was wondering if I could pray for you.”
She replied “Yes, I don’t know how you knew that” and she pointed at her newborn girl, “but her brother is in the hospital still with a lot of health issues and it’s going to be at least a month until he can come home.”
Wow. And even after she shared that, something told me that there were many more struggles going on deeper within her life.
I grabbed my friends and we laid hands on this woman and her children and prayed for them right there in the middle of the restaurant. I could feel the Holy Spirit stirring inside of me and I hoped He was stirring in her also. When we were done she thanked us and we sat back down to eat our food. I was shaking. An amazing thing had just happened. But if there is one thing I’m learning right now, it’s that supernatural things are natural to God. “…My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Miracles and healing are normal to God. And they aren’t things that just happen when missionaries step foot in an impoverished country. They happen when we say YES to whatever God asks us to do and welcome the Holy Spirit into it.
With the attention we drew to the lady by praying for her, the manager and waitresses noticed. I watched them talk with her after I sat down and hand her cards for free meals and even carried her carseat carrier to the woman’s car for her. I heard the manager ask her what more they could do to help her. I hope this woman saw the way that God’s people cared about her and loved her. Even more so, I hope that she went back to the hospital to find a healed and healthy baby boy waiting for her. I believe it could have happened. I have been praying and hoping that it does. I’ll probably never know, but I’m okay with that because I know who’s hands hold all of this.
I am so excited to see where else God will show up over these next nine months. I’m currently sitting in an airport in Boston during a 14 hour layover. From here we fly to Qatar, with a 9 hour layover before we fly to Johannesburg. From there we’ll take a 4 hour bus ride to Nsoko, Swaziland. The World Race has officially begun!
But my life means nothing to me. My only goal is to finish the race. I want to complete the work the Lord Jesus has given me. He wants me to tell others about the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)
Much love,
Abigail
