“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
Have you ever tried that… really?
What’s it look like to turn off the GPS and say,
“I don’t know what you have in store for me today God. I don’t know what the adventure you’ve got planned out is. I have these desires, (to find a new coffee shop, and place with a bathroom since we don’t have much water in our apartment, and maybe a snack) but I’m just gonna trust you today to work out all the details. So… Father, I’m leaning on you… Where do I go?”
I’ve found that God is faithful. He keeps His promises again and again. If you listen for His voice you’ll hear His whisper. He is always speaking. He is always directing our steps.
I along with two of my teammates did a “faith” day. After our team’s morning worship session and lunch together, three of us went down the stairs and prayed a prayer that went something like the one above. Throughout the rest of the day we’d pray as we went for hints of direction, and God worked out all the details.
For me on the Race this isn’t a new tactic for ministry. Actually, most of my month in Turkey went something like this “faith” day, but here we are in a very different context. For one thing, in Turkey it was just me and the guys. On this day, it was Breanna and Allison who I hit the streets with. Lebanon is also very different than Turkey. The country of Lebanon was torn by civil war in the not so distant past and most recently has had a huge influx of Syrian refugees. The country’s population has about 50% of people from a Christian cultural context and about 50% from Muslim context. Their are also lots of other sensitive cultural and historical/political details that play into the overall culture and feel of Lebanon, but basically it’s a big pressure cooker, and people have gone through a lot of hard things here. So far, I have not really experienced the tension that I’ve been warned exists. Instead, I’ve met lovely Christians and Muslims and refugees. I’ve met tons of individual people who the Father clearly loves dearly.
“Faith” day started the night before for me watching a big football game with my teammates Tyler and Charles. It was Tyler’s college team where he played QB back in the day – Wabash vs. their rival DePauw. We streamed from a little restaurant near our apartment that has better WiFi than our apartment. It was still spotty, but a little better than at home. Plus the girls had a girl’s night planned, so we dudes got away. Wabash won, and I found 5000 Lebanese Lira in the bathroom ($3.30). It was a good night.
“Give freely as you’ve been freely given”
This phrase lines up with truth from Matthew 10:8. The phrase popped into my head immediately after picking up the cash. The money was a gift from the Lord. Someone is out $3, but because I gained it I was not going to let it go to waste.
See earlier that day before the game something that has been on my heart going into the month was finally spoken out. This month, I’m not spending personal money until otherwise directed by the Lord. I’m sticking to World Race budget. Not that I’ve spent a ton of personal money on the Race, but it’s easy to buy an extra snack or meal here and there to bring comfort. Comfort that I should let the Holy Spirit bring me as times get hard. We all have something we run to. Sometimes for me that thing is food. Gotta kill the flesh though 😉
So, here’s how “faith” day went after lunch with the 5,000 Lira in my pocket. We prayed at the bottom of the stairs and went. First intersection is just ahead. As we approach, we pray.
“Alright Lord, left or right?”
“I’m hearing left.”
“Alrighty let’s do it, me too.”
We go down for just a second and we see a flower shop that we’ve undoubtedly passed a few times already. Bre goes “Ooh” and pops right in followed shortly by Allison and lastly me. We get to know the shop owner just a little as we walk around exploring his shop. By the end he gave each of us a beautiful white flower. Oddly enough, I was included in that.
We pray for him and his shop as we leave and we keep going down the road. It was an odd sight for us to see a street that is usually packed, be pretty empty. On this particular morning there was a marathon and cars weren’t allowed on the road. Runners were finishing up when we were out but the majority of runners were already done. It was sparse, yet decorated with a few guards here and there, temporary railing in the middle of the street, and a few water stations that only had buckets of ice and no water bottles left in them. We cheered for some of the runners as they pushed to the end. It helped to encourage them that they were close, our apartment was basically the finish line!
We took a right eventually, and we just kept going and praying. We came to a huge flight of stairs and we took pictures in the abandoned buildings the Lord brought us by for fun.
We keep going and we come to a familiar place. We are near the grocery store and the bakery we shopped at from a couple nights before. I remember the Lord “highlighted” a pizza place the day before that was closing as we walked by it that is also right by the grocery store. This time it was open.
On the way to the pizza shop crossing from the grocery store, Allison had an elderly woman highlighted to her and she went and gave her the flower she was given before. She met her right in the middle of the street and it was beautiful to watch.
I went ahead into the shop to greet the men and the girls came in right behind me. The men running the shop are both refugees from Syria. I spoke to them in my extremely broken Arabic that I’ve been trying to learn since being on the field. I had the help of Google Translate. We found out that they had a bathroom that we could use next door, and the girls left me alone with the two men. I got to know their names, and felt the Lord hint at me to buy the girls and I a snack at this shop and build some relationship with these two men. I asked to get whatever is fair for the 5,000 Lira, and I was able to bless the girls when they returned from next door with a nice warm pita and juice. We chatted about the day so far and what we thought the Lord might have us do with these last two flowers. As we finished up, the store began closing. It started to sprinkle, I think rain may be the cue for many places around here to close, because many things do close at the first sign of rain here (so far, it was also a Sunday). I got caught in conversation with the two Syrian men once again before they left for home on their shared moped scooter. They invited me over and even motioned for a man on a seperate moped to pull up next to us so I could ride on the back. I respectfully declined but said I would love to come back and hang out with them again (I fully intend to). The girls accidentally didn’t tell me where they went and I looked around for a bit, but Bre called out to me and they were just next door shopping for some hygiene essentials. Once, they got all they needed and the stores nearby were all closed because of the rain, we started walking again.
Eventually, we come to this intersection and I see out of the corner of my eye a presumably Muslim woman and a baby. I tell the girls and mention that I think a flower is probably for her. She was “highlighted” to me.
It’d be really inappropriate for me to approach this woman. So, I backed off and began praying intentionally for this interaction. The girls also heard the Lord on this one. The woman turned right as the girls walked towards her into her apartment complex. It was so awesome to watch them be bold.
The girls followed the lady into her closed complex and gave her a flower. Then they met the lady’s sister in-law. They gave her a flower. Then as I’m trying to take sneaky pictures of the girls having this conversation and praying. They come out. We’ve all been invited for coffee!
It was a beautiful time for me of playing with the lady’s little boy. The girls got to know the two ladies and have been invited back. So awesome!
At this point we are on a high. The Lord has been so faithful with our day as we’ve just been obedient to the things he’s been speaking to us. Left or right? Wow that person? That place? It’s so sweet that He tells us!
He wasn’t even done. We were just headed home and still praying, but mostly in awe and less for direction. Yet, we came upon a movie store and got to pray with the shop owner, we found a local college, and a beautiful little park. Then we came upon a hostile…
It had the same name as the hostile that we knew two other teams were supposed to be staying. A man yelled down to us.
“Americans, Yes. They are here.”
We were invited inside by the other teams. They showed us around their place and fed us some leftovers and made us coffee. We felt so loved by each of them. Not only that, some of them had that morning wrote letters for members of our team that they wanted us to deliver!
Wow! God thank you for such a beautiful day!
We left the hostile so full of joy, then… COFFEE SHOP!
Our team had been praying to find a good one. It was so sweet to finally find a nice shop where we could go and work on our blogs and other logistical things. We walked by it, but never noticed it before. Now, it’s my favorite. I’m actually at the shop now writing all this!
(Graffiti near the shop)
Thank you for reading everyone! I want to end with another area I’ve had to trust the Lord with since day 1 being called to go on the Race. It takes a lot of faith to say you’re going to fundraise $18,700 on top of having a job and a normal packed American life within a year. To raise that much money is a big undertaking. To date, I have $17,374 raised! A huge blessing from the Lord! I’m so thankful to each and every person who has donated. I have felt so loved by God because of the generosity you people all have! November 30th is our squad’s deadline to be fully funded, and I have $1,326 left to raise.
I want to invite you, if you feel led, to prayerfully consider partnering with me financially to continue building Kingdom around the 10/40 Window for the next 7 and a half months. For the next 13 days any donation received starting at $50 will receive a personally crafted postcard via postagram. Any donation of $100 or more will receive a postcard, and I’ll send a personal video. I know that you don’t give to receive, because y’all have a big heart behind your giving, but I want to do a little something in return for you last few people who decide to help me reach my fundraising goal.
I also invite you all to share this post and my blog to friends and family, so they can also hear the cool things God is up to around the world!
Blessings!
-
Daniel
