Prior to coming on the World Race, I wrestled for months about going or not. Part of me thought it would be exciting, but the other part of me hated the thought of leaving for that long. Nonetheless, day after day I would find myself sitting for hours on end reading racers blogs, watching videos & day dreaming about the race.
Around January 2011, I stumbled upon a video on the front page of the World Race website by a guy named, Colby Gardner. I watched the video, thought it was incredible & then thought, “I’m gonna email this guy, just say hi & tell him I enjoyed the video & that I’m praying for his journey.”
It wasn’t very long until I received a message back. He talked about his race & at the bottom he asked some random question along the lines of, “Hey! By the way, what’s your favorite color?!” Haha. Over the next couple months we corresponded quite a bit & become buds. He spoke a lot of words of life over me during the months as I prepared for the race. Constantly answered my questions & praying.
We never actually got the opportunity to hang out before I left in September 2011, but we’ve kept talking whenever we could. The Lord has used Colby in my life in so many ways. He was obedient & reached out to me, even though he’d NEVER met me in person. He’s been one of my biggest supporters & encouragers the entire time I’ve been on the field.
Recently Colby took a job with AIM’s “Church 2 Church” program & now he goes & partners with churches around the world, facilitating missions teams who come in to work. It’s a pretty cool job!
About 2 weeks ago, Colby sent me a message. He’d be in Granada, Nicaragua between July 20th- 28th. Only about a 30 minute bus ride from my location, but we weren’t sure we’d be able to link up.
…
Yesterday morning at about 9am, my contact informed me that I needed to be at Casa Mateo Hotel about 11am, because I had a visitor coming…
Sure enough, about 11:15 in walks Colby. He flung a pineapple at me, said “LETS EAT” & gave me a big ol’ hug! Haha. 17 months after becoming Facebook friends, we finally met in person.
It worked out great that my ministry wasn’t going from 11am- 3pm, and he was free for that time, too. Perfect! And it really was, because God had a plan.
We headed out to the local diner for lunch & before too long we found ourselves having a conversation with an American girl named, Betsy, who’s teaching here in Nicaragua. We exchanged stories & soon we realized that Betsy really needed some life spoken over her. She felt like she was struggling here & that she hadn’t seen spiritual “fruit” happen like she expected. Immediately Colby began to speak words of life over her & she began to cry. It was a very humbling moment. After sometime, we said “We’ll see you after while”, then headed out.
We soon noticed a frail, old man who was probably in his 80’s who was trying to cross the road. He was basically laying on the ground, scooting himself across the busy street. Quickly, Colby ran over to help him & eventually got him to the other side.
Manuel, the little man, literally hadn’t eaten in days from the looks of it. He needed food. I finished helping Manuel to the stoop of the building while Colby ran to the next door pulperia (store) to grab some food. I set with Manuel & tried my best to carry on a conversation with him in my broken spanish & before long, here came Colby with our new friend, Betsy.
Betsy is fluent in Spanish, so she came over to talk to Manuel & then Colby gave him some food & drink. It was an incredibly powerful moment, completely ordained by God.
We finished talking to Manuel & then we said a prayer over him. When we finished, he shook our hands, began to sob & thanked us.
As we walked away, I couldn’t have been more thankful or humbled in that moment. God was so good & showed up so thick on the side of that street corner. What a blessing to not only pour into Betsy, pray over & feed Manuel, but to get to final serve along side one of my brothers in Christ who helped me get here today.
As Colby spoke words of life over Betsy, I learned something yesterday, but I’ll blog about that another time.
…
Colby, thank you. I cannot say it enough. You’ve ministered to my life & I’m forever grateful for every word, email, Skype talk, or comment you’ve used to pour to me. You never really know the impact you make on people lives. I’m honored to call you “mi amigo.” Love you, “homie.” You're heart is so full of Him.
…
As Colby starts this new season and position at AIM, he will be completely depending on churches, friends, and family, to help sponser him, because it is a full time volunteer job. Lets do what we can to help support and show him love. Please check out his blog at the address below. I know he'd appreciate it very much.
http://colbygardner.myadventures.org/
14 days to go…
Love y’all.
P.S. Colby, it isn’t 600 words yet, but it’s less than 1,000! Haha
