Today we said goodbye to teammates and framily and It was bittersweet, Saying bye to one set of family and hello to another.
When we arrived in Atlanta we were greeted with cooler weather, English speaking people, and people confused by our enthusiastic hello’s.(around the world people actually acknowledge that you are a person walking by, I know it’s kinda crazy !)
So let’s Rewind a bit
This morning I was so blessed
I went to buy breakfast and a teammate wanted to pay for it
I wanted a smoothie and a teammate offered me half her smoothie
I wanted an ice coffee and a teammate offered me half her ice coffee
Needless to say The Lord was blessing me all over the place today, which was heartwarming because it was a hard day .
Rewind over.
We are at the airport and a few of us wanted chicken and waffles ( I was eager to see what all the hype was about) so we went to IHOP of course. When we got inside a man asked us if we were missionaries, he said he could tell by our packs which I thought was funny. We told him a bit about what we did and he laughed about us choosing IHOP as our re entry meal. He was a very nice man but I didn’t think anything of it .
A few minutes later a man named Marcus walked into the restaurant and asked us if we had any food we could give him, all of us imidiatly told him to have a seat. He shared his story about how he just got out of prison last week (he was there for 20 years) and how hard the process has been, life is so different then when he left. He recited a whole chapters of psalms to us, And shared about his trust in The Lord. He was such a blessing to us, we shared a meal and enjoyed some good company.
I was praying about how we could bless him and I wanted him to have a sleeping bag. Something warm during this cold season, but I was disappointed because my sleeping bag isn’t warm at all and wouldn’t be of much help, so I prayed. One minute later my teammate Ari offered her sleeping bag to our friend. I was in shock because I knew it was his.
In the middle of all of this our waitress informed us that the man who was sitting next to us earlier paid our entire bill!
I was floored! I cried because The Lord is so good and he provides.
He blessed us so we could bless our new friend .
The reason I’m telling you this story is for two reason
Reason number one is because The Lord blesses so we bless others, when he gives it’s also so you give, it’s not all ours to take. He’s a good father and he sees our needs and he meets us where we are at. All we have to do is say YES and be amazed!
Reason number two is because Being in the states is overwhelming, I was feeling like I just wanted to do ministry anywhere but where I am. People don’t smile back, they think I’m crazy for saying hello and I don’t know what to do. Through all that he showed me all I had to do was open my eyes, say YES and watch and listen to what he wanted to show me.
Tonight I was tremendously blessed by our friend, he filled my heart with hope for the future and a new excitement. I know if I ask The Lord will continue to provide these opportunities. The cool part about these opportunities is through saying YES to someone in need you get to hear their story, see into their life, and bless them.
I want to encourage you to ask God for those opportunities and be willing to say YES! Those days are ones you don’t forget. And if you feel you don’t have the money to bless a person in need with food. I want to encourage you to pray about it! The bible says to feed the homeless and God sees those sacrifices. One thing I know is none of us had an abundance of money for our own meals tonight and The Lord knew that so he took care of it so we could take care of someone else.
So step out
Step up
And see what happens
Because today might have been the last day of the race, but it’s only just begun.
I also want want to say thankyou to EVERYONE who helped me get to the end of the race.
I could not have done it without people helping me financially, emotionally,and spiritually. So thank you for caring enough, for reading blogs and for helping me get to this point. My life will never be the same because of this journey and every one of you is responsible for that!
