Sometimes I pray. God listens. And God does speak to me.
God does speak to me. That’s such a cool and sometimes overwhelming thing. Despite growing up in the church, Adventures in Missions is the first Christian group I’ve encountered that believes that God really speaks to us in ways other than Scripture. He gives us visions, words, dreams, etc. Often we may ask God for something but seldom do we wait or even expect God to actually speak to us. After praying, thoughts we receive or pictures we get can be God’s way of speaking to us. Or I’ll ask God to speak and ask for all other voices to be silenced. Listening prayer is something I’ve been learning about and practicing.
I’ll be summarizing my last few weeks through stories of how God has spoken to me and answered my prayers.
So the last week in September we were at a conference called the Awakening for all world racers- people from my squad that left in June, a squad that left in January and 2 squads that left in August, plus lots of staff and alumni. Altogether there are about 220 people that came together in Brasov, Romania. The week before I prayed about the conference and asked the Lord for someone to share my story with and just a good connection with one or two people from another squad. So the first full day I met Heather from the August squad. A month earlier I stayed in Targu Mures, Romania and people from the August squad would come and stay in the same place after we left. I left an encouraging note for the person who would sleep in my bed, and Heather was that girl. We talked and ended up having similar stories and struggles – which was really a gift from God to be able to share how God is working in my life and having someone who could really empathize with me.
Last Saturday we left Brasov and headed back to Bucharest, and then traveled to Istanbul the following day. As soon as the train arrived in Bucharest I get a vision of Tara (one of the girls on my squad) being attacked. This surprised me because I usually don’t get visions and especially without actually praying and asking for God to speak to me. I knew it wasn’t my imagination because I like Tara and I usually don’t imagine people I like being attacked. So I talked to her and asked how she was doing…fine she said… I told her about the vision and really felt convicted to pray protection over her and so I did. I was with my team the rest of the day, and when we returned to the hostel that night I found out that Tara was in the hospital. She had fallen off a roof and fractured her pelvis. That news hit me so hard- I knew something was going to happen to her that day because of the vision. God did speak to me! I was so glad that I prayed over her. She is still in the hospital in Bucharest and we are still praying for her and trusting God to heal her completely. Please read her blog for more details and keep her in your prayers tarareed.theworldrace.org
