“Ask the Lord”… ATL for short. That is a kind of ministry that we do on the world race. As we go into new places that the world race has never been, this is something we have to do more often. We have to have a heavier reliance on God to provide us with transportation, lodging, contacts, and ministry. To prepare us for months that we don’t have a ministry host or a place to stay or get around, we are practicing ATL while in Indonesia.
We were given some time yesterday to pray over what our second half of Indonesia will look like as we leave Bali and make our way to Jakarta. As we were praying, we all heard some pretty odd things. I heard “opposite direction of Jakarta”, “three islands away”, and “kids ministry”. My fellow teammates heard pink, pink, more pink, pink flowers, pink sand, a boat, a fisherman, south, Islamic, and saw visions of children. As we pieced all this information together, we found our destination: Komodo Island. Home to the Komodo dragon, an infamous pink beach, pink flowers, three islands away from Bali in the opposite direction of Jakarta, in southern Indonesia, and you must take a ferry from Labuan Bajo to reach this island. Say what? So this island is home to 2,000 people and it is tribal. So the likelihood of them following an Abrahamic religion like Islam is not likely. Well, the island actually is Islamic. The local men here are primarily fishermen, while they go out, their wives and children stay at home, so we will have the opportunity to minister to them while their husbands are working. WHAT. So, we are pretty positive we have our answer.
Today, as apart of our training, we were going out into Bali and praying for words and visions of people. Our team felt led to a notebook store. We walk in and start immediately chatting with the workers. Me and another teammate are chatting with one worker, we will call her Sarah to protect her identity. The conversation went something like this:
Us: have you lived in Bali your whole life?
Sarah: yes! Where are you two from? Australia?
Us: No, the United States! Have you ever been?
Sarah: no… only Bali.
Us: have you ever been to another island?
Sarah: oh yes! I actually have been to labuan bajo. (The island that you have to go to to reach Komodo island)
~be cool~
Us: ….oh cool! Did you go to Komodo Island?
Sarah: *lights up* Oh yes!
Us: really? We actually may be going there in two days!
Sarah: (Continues to tell us all about Komodo Island, her experience) How long have you all been in Bali?
Us: About 8 days now!
Sarah: Have you made your way to the temples?
Us: we haven’t have a chance yet!
Sarah: *shows us some pictures* (they are stunning temples!)
Us: oh wow! Are you Hindu?
Sarah: no, I am Christian!
Ok, I’ll sum up the rest of the conversation. After we internally freak out, we chat about her church, Jesus, and what we’re doing. Long story short, Sarah provides us with an English-speaking contact in komodo village and a few other contacts to meet!
So, after some prayer and planning, we are officially heading to Komodo Island! We are hoping to leave tomorrow and arrive on the 17th! The chances of us having WiFi are slim, so I most likely won’t be able to contact anyone until the 28th of February. This is a very unknown experience for my team, so please be praying for our safety, peace of mind, endurance, and favor! As for now, I will post again in a few weeks!
