On Thursday night, our squad leaders had an announcement to tell us. Naturally, that makes me a little nervous, but I usually have some idea of what they’re going to say. Not this time! They gathered the entire squad after dinner and the first words I heard were “route change” and my jaw hit the floor. WHAT?! As I tightly-squeezed Emily’s hand, I heard “we are no longer going to China or Mongolia.” NO!! Not some of my favorite places on the route! I had dreams about Mongolia!! Sadly, the previous squad that tried entering China was denied visas upon arrival and our Mongolia host fell through. Super heartbreaking.
After leaving Madagascar at the beginning of April, we were supposed to go to Malaysia for two weeks, one week for debrief and one week for ministry, and then continue on to China and Mongolia. Instead, the squad is going to Malaysia for 3 weeks, either Sri Lanka OR Indonesia for 3 weeks, and Thailand for 3 weeks. In June, we will (probably) resume our normal route in Myanmar. Nothing is a sure thing on the world race.
If you caught the ‘OR’ part, what is really exciting is that each team got to choose which country they felt led to go to—Sri Lanka or Indonesia. We are the first squad to ever have a choice in which country we want to go to and also the first squad to be able to go to TWO countries in the same month! R-Squad is the best, obviously. As individual teams, we had to come together and ask the Lord whether he wants us to go to Indonesia or Sri Lanka. The best part? We had 24 hours to decide.
My Diamonds and I spent Friday praying about it individually, and then gathered together to do listening prayer that night. During listening prayer, you find a quiet space and ask God to speak to you in a clear way that you can understand. You then wait and listen. God has so much to say to us and He speaks in different ways—through visions, words, passages of Scripture, and feelings. So my team and I spent some quiet time in listening prayer, asking God to reveal which country he wants us to go to. Once we felt we had clarity, we wrote down the country on a piece of paper, folded it up, and placed it in a pile. It wasn’t until the end that we’d talk about what we felt.
Everyone goes about listening prayer in a different way which I love because we are all uniquely and wonderfully made. I find that sometimes I am unsure of what exactly God is saying to me, and for a question as big as this I knew I needed clarity. So, I raised both of my hands and named my left hand Sri Lanka and my right Indonesia. I asked God to place the weight of a stone in whichever hand he wanted me to go to. Kind of weird, I know. But hey, it actually worked! About a minute later, I literally felt a strain in my right hand that shot through my arm. I quickly wrote down Indonesia and threw my paper in the pile.
Once everyone had answered, we opened the papers. Three read Sri Lanka and three read Indonesia. Crap. I had a sinking feeling this was going to happen. We then shared individually the reasoning behind all of our answers. My answer was one of the more concrete responses from God. Many of the girls were unsure if what they heard was their own thoughts or thoughts from the Lord, which happens a lot during listening prayer. One girl thought she had a “random” vision of a pineapple which made her choose Sri Lanka because it’s an island. But, another girl actually asked the Lord to send her a vision of a pineapple if he wanted her to go to Indonesia. How cool!! I’m telling you, the Lord speaks in many crazy ways. After discussing our thoughts and explaining our reasoning, we re-voted, and it was unanimous—INDONESIA!
This whole experience really shows me how much God is in control of our team. While God is already in both countries and could use us in both places, we were able to be led by the Holy Spirit to see where God wants us to go. He has the ultimate plan for my team. While I am still really sad about missing out on the ministry opportunities in China and Mongolia, perhaps the Lord is protecting us from bad things there, or maybe He needs us more in these other countries.
After all of the teams met separately, four decided to go to Sri Lanka (Team Manna, Deep Wells, Ignite & Daughters of Grace) and three decided to go to Indonesia (Team Diamonds, Firebrand & God’s Magnolias). What an adventure! I am so excited to be led by the Holy Spirit and minister to the people of both Indonesia and Thailand!! Please keep all of the teams in your prayers during this time of grief and planning.
God is good,
Britt
P.S. Sorry for the inaccurate Christmas calendars mom & dad 😉 I guess you’ll just have to pick back up in June!
