Before I left for this kingdom journey the Lord reminded me that He truly does work all things together according to His will. A few examples:
– I got my Chinese visa even though it was out of the normal range of 90 days that they grant them
– I received 11 months of needed medication for less than expected – the 11 months vacation override alone was a huge confirmation of His plan for me to be on this trip (I got the nicest people who work at my insurance company all four times I called, also one was named Heather! 🙂 )
– I am 100% funded for the year – wow thank you so much to all who have donated!
This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions and information. We had training camp in a beautiful place outside the city with a bunch of our team leaders, squad mentor, team ‘parents,’ and Seth Barnes. After processing the week, I think the main thing I took away was that the Lord is still actively working in lives today in awesome ways, just as He was in Bible times. He wants us to ASK for things and He wants to see us step out in faith for Him and trust. People tend to think that it’s too crazy to ask God to heal the blind, raise the dead, and heal the sick – but I am convinced that He still does these things. He is almighty and He can do anything He wants. I cannot wait to see all the things that happen when my team and I step out in faith and truly ATL (ask the Lord) for more of Him this year. This will not be the last blog you read about the supernatural things that God is doing right before my eyes.
Let me tell you about my squad mate Jen. She is an amazing Godly woman and I feel so blessed to have our paths cross. Last week we had been praying about healing and laying hands on people who had physical sicknesses that needed to be healed by Jesus. After our session people had less pain, less congestion, and there were some people that God chose to not heal in that moment, and that was okay. I am fully confident that He heals when He is ready. But anyway, Jen went on a run after the session because God told her to. She followed a dog on a path out to this beautiful lake, because God told her to. Then God told her to jump in. She has hearing aids that are not water proof so that wasn’t an ideal situation. But she obeyed. Then God told her to put her head under water with the hearing aids in. So she did. After she got out of the water, all she could hear was the Lord telling her to do something crazy: take out her hearing aids and throw them in the lake and leave them behind forever. So she did. Jen so courageously stepped out in faith and trusted that God was speaking to her and that He would heal her, and I know He will. We prayed over her as soon as she told us this story, and the Lord kept telling her He would heal her, but first she had to wait. Jen is an amazing example of someone who obeys the Lord, even if it sounds crazy. Please be praying for God to heal her hearing as soon as He is ready. 🙂 Her blog can be found at www.jenniferboeve.theworldrace.org
I’m tired of keeping God in a box and asking for simple things – I want more. I want the crazy, unexplainable, unexpected things to happen around me because I know that Jesus can do them. He is like a force people forget to call on. I’m done overlooking the most powerful force in the world and starting to call on Him for the impossible, daily. In one blog I said I wanted to have a conversation with someone everyday about Jesus. My teammates and I have changed this a little bit and decided to make it into an ATL (ask the Lord) treasure hunt as much as possible. We learned this in training camp. We all pray and ask God for signs…any random clue that He can give us that we can put together and it will lead us to someone who needs to hear that He loves them or some other special message (like He heals brokenness, etc.) In an ATL treasure hunt you ask for these things:
1. a people group
2. ailment
3. color
4. thing
5. place
As a group effort of praying and seeking we got these signs on our first night: indian/tan, middle-aged man (30-40ish), dark hair, “Ch”, white powder, a leg problem, smiley, hill/mountain, under a stand/tent, clothes line, and darkness.
We walked around with open eyes and found a tan Thai man, sitting under a stand/tent thing, with dark hair, painting a smiley painting with a white powder. There were also some paintings in his shop that had distorted eyes that were spooky and evil looking – definitely some kind of dark presence there. We talked to him for a bit through his translating friend, and we wanted to pray with him but he refused. He was Buddhist and was not okay with Christians praying for him. So we stepped to the side and prayed for him without him knowing. Although he wasn’t open to hearing that Jesus loved him or letting us pray for him, it was still a building experience for our team and it could have planted a seed. It takes an average of 7 people coming to a person and telling them about Jesus before they want to actually hear about Him. I am alright with being one of those middle numbers that doesn’t get to see how the story ends. In this ATL process, we realized that we can’t be wrong. It doesn’t matter if all of our clues aren’t used, or if that wasn’t the specific person we were supposed to find – everyone needs to hear that Jesus loves them!
We did a second ATL the next day and through our prayers we were given these clues: fish in a basket, a hat/sombrero, a round shape with a middle circle (like a bagel), purple, a woman (mother), the letter E, peach colored flowers, and white flap.
We walked around and found a lady in a shop, she was wearing all purple. She had hats for sale, there were fish items and flowers in her shop too. So we stopped and talked to her. She couldn’t understand our message but she was very interested in what we were saying, so she had us write it down so she could bring it to someone who knows English. Whether she was the lady or not: she definitely understood she was loved by Jesus yesterday. We decided to keep looking to see if anyone else fit the description. We found ourselves ready to get Thai massages as a team memory we were supposed to make. WOW they think we are a lot more flexible and tougher than we are – I was in pain as it was happening, but felt pretty good after it! Anyways, as we were laying there in one big room getting our massages, we all started to look around. One of the ladies had a purple shirt on, we saw fish and baskets on the wall, the mirror was like a donut, the massage place was called FLOWER massage, etc. Since we were all laughing as we tried to be flexible and not yelp too loud as we were stretched in ways we didn’t know we could, the ladies opened up and were getting comfortable with us. After the massages we started to tell one of the ladies that we felt like God has a message for her. The ladies wanted to fully understand what we were saying so one of them gave us her phone opened to a translation application. They were excited to hear that we were on a treasure hunt and that THEY were the treasure God told us about. We got to pray with them and love on them like most clients don’t take the time to. Whether they were the women we were supposed to meet or not, it doesn’t matter – God placed them in our path and we got to talk to them about Jesus. That is enough for me!
My team and I (5 girls total) will continue to have ATL treasure hunts as much as we can, this is how we are going to tell people about Jesus. We want GOD to show us who needs to hear it the most. We want to be interruptible so that the Lord is guiding our paths at all times. I’m so excited to see the beautiful treasures He brings us each day! Please follow my teammates’ blogs and keep them in your prayers as well! Their blogs can be found on the left sidebar on this page. 🙂 If you feel like donating to one of them, it would be a huge blessing to our whole team.
Thanks for reading! Please keep those prayers coming! 🙂 (see below for specifics) Each prayer is very much appreciated!
Love
Heather
Prayer requests: full healing of Jen’s hearing (she has about 20% without her hearing aids), good health for the whole team, openness to new ways to see Jesus working, openness with each other and the people we will be ministering to (we haven’t gotten our placements in Chiang Mai yet – Friday we should know), safe travels for our mentor, squad parents, and squad leaders as they head back at various times.
Weird things I have eaten: shrimp chips, seaweed, seaweed chips, ham/mustard flavored chips…that’s it so far & for the record: I won’t be eating any of them again! 😉
