When we saw it, we all stopped in our tracks.
A tree, full of bright, pink blossoms, standing by a home in the middle of the village, was a reminder to us of the reality of God and His faithfulness in bringing us to this place.
Just a few days earlier, as our squad debrief and training in Bali, Indonesia, was coming to an end, my team gathered together to pray and ask the Lord where we should spend the rest of our time in Indonesia. (Asking the Lord where to go is something that Expedition World Race routes often do. While this would scare a lot of people, I find it exhilarating to be able to follow the Lord all over the world and watch Him provide all that we need time-and-time again.)
After a few minutes of praying for direction, we came back together to listen to the words, phrases, and visions given to each person by the Lord. I started: “Well, I got the word ‘pink’, which isn’t helpful. I also got the word ‘south,’ and I’d have to look at a map, but I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of where we are supposed to be traveling (since we were supposed to be traveling in the direction of Jakarta, Indonesia, to fly to our next country at the beginning of March).”
I expected nothing to come from the words I had felt airdropped into my mind, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Several of my teammates began to chime in saying that they had received the color pink as well with one girl saying that she had specifically received ‘pink sand’. Another teammate said that there might actually be something to the word ‘south’, as she had heard, “Go the wrong way.”
And my jaw nearly dropped when a teammate began to share a vision of a little girl with dark hair in a field with large leaves, as I’d had a similar vision (replace leaves with pink flowers) but had chosen not to share it because I thought I had made it up (still learning to discern between by own mind and the Holy Spirit).
People continued to share what they had received, often being seconded by someone else who had received something similar, and little by little, we began to put the pieces together: pink, pink sand, pink flowers, south, go the wrong way, three islands over, Islamic, a man in a fishing boat, children, and kids’ ministry (this initially made me nervous, as I have qualms about working with children overseas and becoming a part of the revolving door of people in their lives, but what came to be of this particular experience is beautiful).
We felt that there might be something to the pink sand clue, and after a quick Google search, we found that three of the world’s eight pink beaches are in Indonesia.
Whaaaaa???
We separated to research and pray about these three islands, and within a day, we came back together with the conclusion that we were all being led to one particular island that had a small, fishing village on it.
After some serious team conversation, prayer, and approval from the World Race on our desired destination, we squealed at the realization that we were stepping out in faith and going to Kampung Komodo.
The Lord had some serious favor on this trip, as the pieces began to fall into place. Even pieces that seemed to be falling out of place, fell back into place.
For example, I woke up the morning we were to travel to the island with what felt like an ear infection, but it was 4:00 a.m., and we had a flight to catch, so I went ahead and packed up my stuff to head to the airport. That was a painful flight. When we got off the plane, I knew that we needed to hurry to catch our ferry to the island, but I also knew that I needed to go to the doctor.
Knowing that we might miss our ferry which would botch our plans since the next ferry wouldn’t leave for several days, my team was incredibly gracious, encouraging, and optimistic as we hurried off to a clinic.
We should have missed that ferry. But the Lord seemed to make time stand still, and after being diagnosed and getting medicine for a double ear infection, we managed to catch the ferry before it left.
Crammed onto a boat full of people and supplies, we headed to a remote fishing village.
Upon our arrival, we found ourselves in a place that very noticeably fit every word, phrase, and vision that the Lord had given us, as we had prayed for direction in where to go.
But when we saw that tree full of pink flowers, we just about fell from shock.
We just arrived back on the mainland after a POWERFUL ten days with these beautiful people, and we are still in shock at all that has happened.
We chose to go the wrong way, headed south, went three islands over, and found an Islamic fishing village that is flooded with children, is on the same island as a pink sand beach, and has a tree standing in the center of the village that is covered in pink flowers.
And here’s the cherry on top: half of my team stayed with a family in which the father is the school headmaster and two of the daughters are teachers, so while I wouldn’t typically choose to teach in an overseas school for such a short time (again, it can be a revolving door for kids), we were invited into an incredibly organic opportunity to help some of the students at the village schools. Oh, and did I mention that their house is pink?
The people in this village are accustomed to tourists coming in order to visit the nearby national park (where the only Komodo dragons in the world reside), but the tourists often only stay for a day and treat the villagers as a museum exhibit (so frustrating to me). So while they weren’t sure what to think of us at first, they soon realized that we weren’t ordinary tourists.
And what resulted of our time together is something that is almost too beautiful and special to put into words, but I am certainly going to try in my next blog post or two.
I’ve said this before, and I will say it again: life with Jesus is a treasure hunt.
As always, thank you for being a part of the journey + treasure hunt!
XO, Jami
