The way you counsel and correct me makes me praise you more,
for your whispers in the night give me wisdom,
showing me what to do next.
Because you are close to me and always available,
my confidence will never be shaken,
for I experience your wrap-around presence every moment.
-Psalm 16:7-8
I mentioned in an email before that this month is ATL in Armenia. ATL stands for “Ask the Lord”. So this month we don’t have a ministry host. We don’t have a specific assignment from a ministry leader. Rather we ask the Lord daily what he would have us do.
The first week of this month it was pretty easy. In the hostel we’ve been staying in there was a young Iranian woman that some of the girls on my team and I were able to spend time with. I’ve never seen God pursuing someone as strong as He was her. The details of this situation were sent in a private email to those subscribed to my blog. If you were not able to read it, leave me your email and I’ll send it your way.
What’s been really interesting is that most of this month has been a lot less of God saying things like “Go to this place, do this thing, and this is what’s going to happen”. More times than not our opportunities for ministry have fallen into our laps.
For instance one morning we walked to the top of the cascades at sunrise to worship. There we met a man who was heavily drunk. He was Mormon and said he believed in God and believed in Jesus. He prayed with us. And in the midst of everything tried to give us donuts and chocolate. In his drunken stupor shared the gospel with a stranger, and said he saw Holy Spirit in my eyes and knew I was serious about Jesus.
God can use any vessel he wants to to accomplish his will.
There have been many times over breakfast, supper, times around the laptop watching Netflix, in the hostel, that we’ve had conversations with Filipino guests and staff and native Armenian staff. A large part of our ministry is being a light and loving our a Christian Life before those who claim Christianity here in Yerevan, Armenia.
When we went to an artisan market just the other day looking for paintings and jewelry. While Ali, Katie and myself had finished and were waiting outside the market for Jezie, a woman came up to us telling us about all of her troubles and ailments and how she’s been having operations and treatments for breast cancer. We weren’t even searching anyone out, and though we didn’t have money to give for her operation, we prayed over her telling her we believe in Jesus and that our God is a God of miracles and healing. I really am hoping that her next visit to the hospital she will be cancer free.
After the market, Jez and I went to get Indian food, which we had been missing. With very few people in the restaurant we were able to begin a conversation with the owner of the restaurant who was from Calcutta. His wife played piano for one of the churches here in Armenia, and he had been attending one of the orthodox apostolic churches here with her. However, he believed that humans are gods, and his Mom is his first god. He was very mind and said that we’re friends now so if we ever need anything to stop by. He was also excited to be able to speak English freely with us, because in Armenia there are few English speakers. We’re hoping for more opportunities to meet and have gospel conversations.
But the bigger thing for ATL I believe that we as a squad we’re learning is
- This is a lot like Life in the states where you don’t have anyone telling you where to be and where to go and what to do. We do get our marching orders from God. So now we are questioned with are we going to steward our “freedom” well. Will we live life interruptible for the Kingdom while going about everyday activities? Will we seek intimacy with God daily? Will we choose community daily?
- We’ve also seen that this month has allowed a lot of space to deal with, process, and be intentional with the things going on in our hearts or lives that were easily avoidable by all the things we were doing for ministry.
With ATL we’re really seeing if we’re going to choose life to be ministry, and ministry to be life.
