Before I left on the race I wrote a blog
inspired from the song, ‘I Saw God Today’ A few days ago on the beach thanks to
the shuffle setting I heard it on my ipod and I opened my eyes to all around me
in Santorini.
Every day I look around and I feel like I am in a movie because
it is almost too beautiful to believe that I am here. It is easy in this
setting to tune out the world and face it, isn’t that the point of a vacation. That’s
what I used to think.
This year has taught me to be intentional at all
times. Well, I choose to ignore God’s voice a lot, but it is always there. A
lot of people we have met this year were excited to meet missionary’s, which
made talking about it easy. Here in Greece there are a lot of American tourists
we have met. For the 1st time in awhile I am getting the ‘Ohh you
are a missionary, well umm, hmm. What does that mean?’ and then trying to get
out of a God focused conversation quickly. Despite that, I have seen God in every
situation.
I saw God present when I talked with one of my roommates
at the hostel. She was telling me about her travels this year and then she
mentioned this small, awful town called Pattaya in Thailand. She taught English
there for awhile and had a hard time living in a city like Pattaya. God moment!
I told her about my experience and how God set me on fire while I was there and
how God called me to return one day. The crazy thing is she is moving to
Atlanta to go to grad school. It was no coincident in meeting her, it was a
God-incident.
from the Coast Guard on break here in Santorini. He stumbled into our room to
invite us out and tell us how we were the most beautiful women on the island.
While I can’t argue with that, it is always nicer to hear from someone
completely sober. He heard we were the missionaries staying there because word
travels fast. He opened up and told us how he believes in God and told us some
miracle stories from his family. He started talking about how he feels so alone
because on a ship of 180 there are only 2 believers and he feels lost most of
the time. He broke into tears talking about how messed up his life is and how
one day he wants to get his act together. He drinks to forget the pain but in
the process has lost himself. I trust that God used our words to encourage him
and for him to hear and believe that he is not alone. I saw a lost man who is
searching for significance, searching for a purpose, and searching for more. I
heard God say I am the answer.
is the enemy. He knows our weaknesses and struggles and his one plan is to
kill, steal, and destroy. Even on the beautiful island of Santorini we have to
rebuke the enemy and call on Jesus to give us strength. My struggles have been
thrown into my face and satan has been trying to overcome me. He thinks now
that I am off the race things will change and I won’t live my life boldly anymore.
He thinks I will now shut up and not talk about how awesome my Savior is. All I
have to say to that is…go to back to hell satan because you cannot overcome me
or my God. We win, bottom line.
