Hello all!
A lot of this year, I feel like I am having to re-learn foundational Biblical concepts in real life situations. I have been studying the Bible for a while now, and prideful me thought I knew a lot. But that’s just the problem – I know these truths in my head, but not so much in my heart. I believe the Lord is walking me through these experiences to engrain them into my soul and to create a firm foundation in Jesus. I wasn’t expecting this to happen when I signed up for the race, but if this World Race experience has been anything, it’s been unexpected.
Malaysia
Malaysia was our first month of Ask The Lord (ATL) ministry, so I had no idea what to expect. Not like the other months though, where we’d walk into a ministry partnership not knowing what it’s like or what “children’s ministry” actually meant, but it was more like not knowing what to expect with the freedom we had. Malaysia was our oyster and we could go anywhere or do anything the Lord asked of us. That was a lot. A foreign country with no plans? Yikes. But when you apply the phrase, “life is ministry and ministry is life,” it becomes more manageable. We understood that we just needed to live life according to the Gospel, love God and love people, and be interruptible in all aspects of life.
With all of that being said and after a lot of prayer, my team (Cho Cha! – temporary all girl team put together for Manistry month) decided to head south to a place called Melaka. It was a breeze getting there. It’s about a 2 hour bus ride south of Kuala Lumpur, along the west coast of the country. It was such a cute town with weekend night markets, ~trendy~ coffee shops, the ocean within walking distance, and a lot of charm. We spent about a week there and met some great people. Even though some of the daily plans we made didn’t work out, it was so clear that the Lord’s hand was at work in everything we did. For the most part, things came easily to us. To me, it seemed that each “successful” decision we made, it was a little head nod confirmation from God that we were on the right path, doing what He wanted.
I was sad to leave Melaka so early, but we needed to head back to KL to catch our flight to Sri Lanka. My team (Deep Wells) had prayed earnestly for Sri Lanka, and we KNEW this is where God was sending us. With such a great time in Malaysia, I was excited to see what was in store for ATL in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka
When we first arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I had a lot of hope for our few weeks there. But as time went on, it was hard to keep our spirits high. Since we were the first World Race teams sent to Sri Lanka, we had no idea what to expect. Our first couple of days seem like a blur to me now because they were so…odd. Whereas Malaysia had what seemed to be unlimited coffee shops and places to hang out within walking distance, Sri Lanka didn’t have anywhere around for us to go to start to try and build relationships with people. And if we did find a place, people wouldn’t really speak to us. With Colombo being well out of our World Race budget, our team decided to head to Kandy. With a fresh start, I was hopeful again.
We arrived at the bus station a few hours before our bus was scheduled to depart at 10am. 10am came and went and our bus never showed up. It turns out the bus we bought tickets online for was rerouted. There was nothing else we could do about it besides repurchase tickets for the next bus leaving at noon. The bus ride started out fine for me, but after about an hour, I felt myself getting pretty car sick. Luckily nothing happened, but I was about 5 minutes away from asking the bus driver to pull over if that Dramamine didn’t kick in. Once we arrived in Kandy, we made it to our Airbnb and it seemed like something from a dream. It was a 4-story mansion we scored for $11 per night for 7 people total – a total blessing and something in our budget. Unfortunately, our dream was cut short when our host told us the listing had been incorrect and needed triple what we originally agreed on and he couldn’t include any of the amenities that were promised online unless we paid extra for each.
At this point, I was extremely discouraged. Things in Malaysia came so easily for us, why on earth was all of this happening? I initially thought that it must be because we weren’t obeying God’s plan for us in Sri Lanka. If we were, wouldn’t things have been easier?
After thinking this mindset was correct for a few days and trying to figure out how to tell my team I thought we needed to reevaluate our path, I had to take a step back and remind myself of the simple truth: God’s plan for us is never promised to be easy.
Let’s take a look at Paul, specifically 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, where he sums up his suffering for Jesus:
“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”
Now, I know all of what I have experienced has nothing on Paul, but I include this scripture to show that it was the opposite of easy for Paul and he kept pressing on. He even continues to say at the end of chapter 11 that he boasts in the things that show his weakness.
I needed to understand and realize that just because things weren’t going as smoothly in Sri Lanka as they were in Malaysia, it didn’t mean that we weren’t being obedient to God.
In hindsight, we were totally where we needed to be because we eventually found a Bible College while browsing on Google Maps right around the corner from our Airbnb and met a professor and his wife and new baby. They, then, directed us to a pastor down south who just so happened to be having a regional meeting with other pastors and invited us. We were able to get 14 potential contacts for AIM in Sri Lanka and if we hadn’t failed in the beginning, we may not have met all of those pastors in the end.
I write this to keep you updated with my journey (both physical and spiritual lol) and what the Lord is teaching me along the way, but I also hope this story encourages you. If things don’t seem to be going as smoothly as you think they should, pray to our loving God and ask Him. I guarantee He has a reason for everything happening in your life and if there is anything that I have learned in these past crazy 6 months, it is that there are no coincidences.
With Love,
Baileigh
