It could
have just been a coincidence… but then again, I don’t really believe in
coincidence… Last month in Thailand, our
teams at SHE ministries prayed constantly for God to bring the rain and the
floods onto Bangla Road. Yes, it is the
rainy season in Asia right now, but it actually hadn’t rained very much in our
time there. But that didn’t stop
us. We prayed for hours and many people
received prophetic words, songs, and visions about rain in the four weeks we
were there. Our last two days on Bangla Road
were that Thursday and Friday, where we were going to say goodbye to our girls
and have any last minute lunch dates or get-togethers. Some of our musicians even had an opportunity
to play a thirty-minute set at one of the bars on Bangla that Friday night. But that all changed on Wednesday when the
rain began to fall. It rained all day
Wednesday, and especially hard that evening.
The two teams at the bars that night said it rained consistently and
less than half of the normal crowd was out on Bangla. The bars were empty! That was a blessing in of itself. But that wasn’t even the best part.
My team was going out on Thursday night-the night I planned
on saying goodbye to my favorite girls.
But come to find out, Bangla Road was FLOODED and many of the bars were
shut down, some of which experienced water damage. Praise the Lord! Of course, it was bittersweet. We were jumping for joy that the Lord had
answered our prayers and actually sent the flood to Bangla, but we were bummed
that we may not get the opportunity to say goodbye to our girls. Friday rolled around and it was still rainy,
but not nearly as bad as Thursday. The
band called the bar to find out if the gig was still on, but they weren’t going
to be able to practice that afternoon, so they canceled it. Everyone was super bummed out. How awesome would it have been to sing
worship and praise music in a Russian bar on Bangla Road?! Pretty cool.
Seven o’clock rolled around, where we were to meet with our
contact, Mark, and come to find out, we would
in fact, be able to go to Bangla Road that night-all 24 of us! None of us expected it, but as soon as we got
over the shock and got ready to go out, we were pumped! The day before, the Lord laid on my heart to
give one of my girls a card and a special gift, but I assumed I wouldn’t be
able to get it to her because the bars were closed and we had no way to get
there. This opportunity allowed me to
follow through with that, and even tell this woman about Jesus in my letter to
her.
So all 24 of us packed into two trucks and made our way down
to Bangla. Not only were we going to get
a chance to say goodbye to the girls, the band called the manager of the bar
and found out they could still play their set if they wanted to! The band was definitely excited, but nervous
because they didn’t get a chance to practice together that afternoon. This is the first time, EVER, that these five
people would play together-they had never had access to electric and base guitars,
drum sets, or keyboards before. I’m not
exaggerating-they had NEVER played
together before getting up on the stage that Friday night. I believe this was God’s way of saying, “You
don’t need to practice when you put your faith in me.” And that is exactly what happened. At 10:00pm, our teammates got up on stage and
worshiped the Lord in a bar on Bangla Road, and rocked it out! The Holy Spirit was all up in that place, and
people were stopping in the street to listen and see what was going on. I think they got a whiff of the Spirit as
they walked by. It even drew in some
people and got the ones already in the bar moving to the music. Did they know it was Jesus music? I honestly
don’t know… but either way they were
touched by the Spirit that day, and so were all of us.
Did things work out exactly how we expected them to? No.
They were better. Never in my
dreams could I have asked for a better end to an incredible month.
When You Ask for the Rain, God Sends the Flood.
