Yesterday, I prayed for rain.
We have been doing construction ministry for the past week and I have been breaking concrete off of bricks all day with a hatchet and a hammer. The holes in my gloves have been getting a little bigger every day and I am sore in places I never knew could be sore. A couple of days ago, though, we found out there was a chance of rain in the forecast. So as I was creating callouses on my hands yesterday, we saw the gray clouds start to roll in. I was in a really weird mood all day so I spent a lot of time laughing at things that weren’t actually funny and when I saw the clouds coming, I was filled when an unreasonable amount of joy and excitement. A couple of drops started to fall and I started to pray more because I wasn’t exactly content with the amount of rain God decided to send down (I really, really love rainstorms.) We left ministry a little early yesterday because we were invited to go and worship with another squad who is here in Nepal. It had started to drizzle a little by the time we made it back home, but it never really rained very hard.
We got to where the worship was and awkwardly segregated ourselves from the other squad and waited for worship to start. I never sing during worship because I am not a good singer, so I tend to hum and sway back and forth instead, but last night, for whatever reason, I decided to sing.
There is a song we sing that says “I want more of you, God.” And then it repeats “I want more, I want more, I want more, I want more.” As those words were floating through the air, I prayed again.
“Let it rain, God.”
In the middle of my horrible singing, one of the girls from the other squad came up to me (almost scared me half to death) and asked if she could pray for me. I’m gonna call her blonde Taylor. She prayed, and as she was walking away I stopped her and asked her if I could talk to her after worship. I have no idea why I asked her that. It was like someone else was speaking instead of me because words were coming out of my mouth before I even had time to think. So I was half giddy because I was pumped full of the Holy Spirit and partly shocked at myself because I just asked a girl if I could talk to her but didn’t actually have a topic of conversation in mind. I ignored the panic in my head and started singing again, this time with a grin painted across my face.
I think it’s important to mention that I have had a hard time hearing from God recently. I look at the people around me who seem to connect with Him in so many different ways but I can never figure out how I, personally, am supposed to connect with Him. I told my teammate Will this the other day and he told me to stop trying to figure things out with God and stop trying to be other people. He said to just trust that He is there with me and wait for Him to move, so that has been my approach recently on this whole God thing. So when blonde Taylor came up to pray for me, I knew it was God. Then, I found myself thanking Him for the rain. I knew He Was answering my prayer.
As worship continued, another girl came up to me and asked me if she could pray for me. I’ll call her brunette Taylor. You couldn’t have wiped the smile off of my face if you tried. I was grinning from ear to ear. God had shown me His love through blonde Taylor and I was so thankful for that that I never expected anything else from Him, so when he sent brunette Taylor too, it was kind of like the bottom fell out on God’s love. It was a freaking rainstorm in that place with me and God. She started telling me things that I had never even seen in myself and told me to step into those things and encouraged me so much. I had never said a word to either of these girls so I knew that it was God there with me. It was incredible. I haven’t been that happy in awhile.
After worship was over, I had my conversation with blonde Taylor and it turns out that we have a lot in common. I left wanting to be fully myself. Brunette Taylor joined in and we all talked for a couple of minutes and even though it was just for a very short while, I walked home so excited to live my life! God went to great lengths to make sure I was hearing Him. That is such a testimony of God knowing our hearts and knowing what we are struggling with. Have faith in Him!
It wasn’t quite what I expected, but God brought the rain.
Taylors, if you’re reading this. Thank you for being you.
