Looking back at our time in Santa Anna, El Salvador it has been so different from normal. I can’t believe I just used normal to describe anything in my life, but I digress.
“Normally” our ATL’s have gone like this. We pray and find a city to go to. Then we pray some more and walk around until God puts something or someone on our hearts and then we hook up with them. Jesus Centered Ministry was a great example of this (see my Nicaragua blogs for details).
This time we found a city, Santa Anna. Then we walked around until we found a church. We felt like we were to talk to them. This turned out to be very hard with our lack of Spanish and their lack of English. After two trips to the church and finally finding a translator, we found out that all we could really do was pray for the church and speak life into them.
At first I wondered if we had gone to the wrong place. I thought maybe there was someone we were to talk to somewhere else. But then God showed us in his quiet way that we were doing what he wanted us to do. Praying for these people in this small struggling church was what He wanted us to do. We got to share with them and speak life into their little church. We spent most of our time praying. For World Racers so used to doing things for the people we meet this was hard to do. But just what God had in mind.
I find myself minimizing God way to often. Even after all the crazy amazing things I have seen Him do this year. I still find it way to easy to shrink God down to a size I can manage and understand. 
I never thought I would say it but I can kind of relate to the children of Israel. They saw all these amazing things God did for them on a daily basic as they traveled through the wilderness. Yet when it comes down to it instead of saying ok God, it’s your turn. They run off to try to make it happen themselves. I am notorious for trying to fix things. I used to think; silly Israelites just listen to God and let him show up big. But sometimes I guess I am a silly Israelite.
I think this last week was God’s way of shaking things up for me in my crazy, comfortable world race life. Yes even on this trip of something new and different every month you can get comfortable. I have gotten comfortable with traveling, meeting people, border crossings, etc. But to just pray, now that was a tough one.
So many ridiculous things ran through my mind. What will I tell everyone I did last week? I spent time with God? That’s not a good blog. What pictures do I take for that blog? I know, I know, dumb. But I’m trying to be real. This is the way I felt.
If God tells you to do something, do it. Don’t get comfortable with your normal view of God. And what ever you do don’t make God manageable. He is God. You’re not suppose to fully understand him. What would be the fun in that? Let him shake up your world this week. Seek out what God has for you to do. He may just ask you to sit down and pray. But how are you ever going to know if you don’t ask him?
Don’t be a silly Israelite or a silly World Racer.
