715am Shaun walks into our room and turns on all the lights- "Hey girls, you've got to get up, we are leaving in 15 minutes!" So I roll out of bed, wet my hair so it looks less like a porcupine, make coffee, realize I don't have a thermos, tears well in my eyes as i pour out the coffee and run down to the car. Most of our team spends the morning in one church and Shaun and i head out to a different one 45 minutes away.
As soon as we walked into the new church I felt the Holy Spirit and this revelation hit me- I am free here. I can worship however I want- no one knows me, no one can see me, it is just me and Shaun and God. I finally got it, why the World Race sta girls worship like they do- twirling and dancing and smiling and all that- because they can, because they are free and because they are overjoyed to be worshiping God. It isn't about the movements it is about the heart and the experience. So I was singing in Hebrew and dancing a little (yes, dancing… just a bit) and just praising God until it was time for Shaun to speak. Then I prayed over him, prayed for assembly and sat back and heard Shaun give one of the most amazing and challenging sermons that I have ever heard about suffering and persevering for God and rejoicing in all circumstances. What an incredible morning… and then… Pastor said these words… "And now, sister Erica will come and preach for us!" Whaaat?!?!? I was frozen in my chair so the pastor gave me these encouraging words: "Yes sister, come come, just very short sermon about 20-30 minutes."
I tried to act calm and collected and like I new what was going on… I got up on stage, laughed, turned on the mic, closed my eyes and started to pray. I asked God to speak for me and I went on for the next 20-30 minutes about how God Adores every one of us, about Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and about how it is ok to run away from the things of this world as long as we run Towards God. I don't remember all of it but the people seemed engaged and Shaun was nodding and smiling a lot so I guess it went well.
Afterwards they fed us and asked us to just talk to their little youth group for a bit. So we sat down with the six 16-19 year olds and got to know them a little bit. After a few minutes we asked how long this usually lasts? "Oh well usually about 3 hours while the adults have their meetings." Whaaat?!?!? Shaun and I just started laughing and smiling and shrugged our shoulders, said a prayer and asked them if they had anything they wanted to talk about or any questions they wanted to ask. Oh boy did they…
Why do good things happen to people who sin a lot? How do you know where and when God is calling you? How do you actually live by faith? How do you know the Bible is real? Why are you a missionary? How can I be a missionary? I don't see God as my Father, just as God, what do you mean He is our Father? How do I get my friends to believe in Jesus? How did you get here? How do you say no to the temptation and sin of this world? I thought boys had short hair and girls had long hair? Why do you eat turkey on Thanksgiving? (After we gave them a short answer about Pilgrims and Indians they gave us some blank stares so I asked them if they knew the story of Thanksgiving. One girl smiled and vigorously shook her head and proceeded to explain the origins of the holiday to us- Cain and Abel… Duh.)
On the drive home two more amazing things happened. Shaun found a hat in the middle of the road which he jumped out of the car and grabbed, it is currently being cleaned and is almost ready for its new home upon his hairy head. Also we met a newly-wed couple at a traffic light. I noticed the ribbons all over their car and smiled and waved and gave them the thumbs up. They rolled down their windows, shook Shaun's hand, blessed us and let me take a picture before the light turned green. This country is awesome.
