Friday, April 8
Every day a team goes into town around 1 to pray for the night and cover the
street we minister to in prayer.
Today was my day.
And this is the tale of an adventure in God’s hand…
Four of us girls are suited up and ready to leave….a few chores were
unnoticed that need to be done at the house so we quickly do them and then leave
at 1:30…half hour late frustrating some, but again walking in God’s timing. On the way to the bus stop we pray….
Lord, this days is yours. Direct every
step that we take, you are in control of our day, our time, our prayer walk.
Have YOUR way. Let us hear your voice and follow what you have prepared in
advance for us. Open our eyes to the people you want us to see and love. Protect
us, guard us, and lead us.
….love those prayers, you never know what you are in for…and we didn’t.
We get to the bus stop. No bus for 20 minutes. INSTEAD a friendly lady making
SWEET tea (tea stand pic below) and a man who knows little English.
We laugh, make jokes and practice
a bit of English with them. We buy sugar cane tea and continue to wait. A restaurant
owner comes to say hello and invites us to sit. We thank him for the invite but talk at the bus stop instead. We tells us that he will make anything special for us…and with rice noodles just for me! Man
does Jesus love me or what!!! We chat, plan a time to come back then continue
to wait. The man flags a truck down for us because he wants to make sure we
have transportation but they want 300 Bat to get to town….no thank you, we
only have 100 Bat. The driver shakes his hand, laughs saying no and pulls away.
We smile and thank our friend….the waiting continues…..
2:30pm a bus arrives.
We cheer praising God hop on and wave goodbye to our
friends.
A Thai man makes many people move so that we have seats. One man from
Germany makes a rude joke but we have the joy and love of the Lord so we just
love him and laugh with him. We begin to approach the hill, the darkness begins
to be felt. God takes me to Psalm 139:11-12…..
If
I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,�
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
I pass my Bible around to the girls on the bus and we thank God for that reminder. We make a few new friends, sing a few songs (yes we are a bit obnoxious but
all for God’s glory, this country needs joy and a bit of ridiculousness). We hop
off, wave goodbye to more of our friends, and begin our prayers.
We see Ronald McDonald has started prayer for us so we join in. 🙂
Two guys approach. They are friendly and invite
us to an open bar event on Saturday night. They talk to us about all the
drinks, dancing, and guys available for us at the bar….we smile gently let
them know its not our thing but thank them for the offer. They ask a few more
questions and we get to share a bit of God’s love with them by talking and
joking….and maybe practicing break dancing…maybe not. 🙂 We tell them we’ll
be around for a few more weeks and thank them…off they go and into prayer we
go. We pray for their boldness to be for the Kingdom and for God’s glory. That He would invade their lives and be their author…..more prayer and then we hit the
street.
We pass by some bargainers and have some fun with them. The JOY of the Lord
is FUN and ridiculous! Again Thailand needs some JOYFILLED LIFE!
We joke with a man who
offers to make us customized leather underwear and then take a seat outside
one of the bars. I sit and look around. The images from Wednesday night flash in
my mind. The lifeless eyes of the women dancing, the emptiness, the darkness,
it all floods my mind and heart. I think of Ecclesiastes and how meaningless….everything is meaningless.
I pray with Laura. Then on our feet to our next
bar.
We walk around it praising God for the transformation that has
taken place (seeing testimonies from other World Race teams) and then travel to
the top of a bar. God takes me to Isaiah 61 & 64…..these women will be
the ones to rebuild the city. They will be the transformers. We pray for their
dreams and their future and my eyes are caught by two little girls playing below. We head
down the stairs and begin to play with them. We play soccer, cheer for victory when she scores (or really whenever she kicks the ball),
laughter fills the air, smiles run rampid. We run, fall to the ground tired, and just gaze at each with playful spirits. We
high-fived, smiled, and said goodbye.
The little girl who lives in the bars lit up my day! The joy and laughter that flowed out of her changed the atmosphere of that bar, it changed my day, an I know it made our Father happy. Thank you Lord for children and their LIFE!
We continued on our prayer walk and scooted to Starbucks. Everyone
needs a little Green Tea Creme Freeze from Starbucks in their life on a hot day.
We debriefed, chatted, and then headed to the grocery store – even though we were running behind – our girl back home needed saltines. So….store we go. GLUTEN FREE CEREAL (favorite food I haven’t had in 6 months) greeted me in
the import isle, thank you Lord! I rejoiced but God had more, that wasn’t the
treasure.
Two of our squadmates who are stationed 1.5 hours away came running up
to us. They were full of life and joy, they stood out! A divine appointment set
for today. They randomly came into town today with their contact for a bike
festival (yes dad Harley’s). We shared stories about our first week then circled up and prayed
together. The Holy Spirit fell down and chains were broken. Life was spoken and
love was shared. Community was lived and embraced. We hugged and then went our separate ways.
As we left the time of prayer God filled us with joy and with song. We sang through the store and all the way down our ministry
street to our bus stop. We sang and I made a fool of myself, something I had been praying for
since the Philippines. I asked God to take me to a new level of being UNDIGNIFIED for HIM. And today I had JOY doing that. I made people laugh,
smile, and connected with one man who gave me the thumbs up and a high-five.
Thank you for your ridiculousness Lord….its was because of your Spirit that I
was filled with JOY and LAUGHTER all the way down the street. I may have
appeared drunk but the only thing I was drunk on was the Holy Spirit.
And you think that would be the end….no….the Shepherd always has more.
We got to the “bus stop” and waited for 30 minutes. No bus.
We
waited a bit longer. No bus.
It was passed dinner, it was time to be home, but
the Lord kept saying, “Wait I will take care of you.”
So we waited.
Some people suggested we pay the extra and ask for a private drive home but one
problem…we didn’t know our address and didn’t have a phone with us because we forgot to take one with us (sorry TLs). So….we asked again….
“Wait.”
So we waited (pic below).
And then I see Alicia Tarjeft (from another team) hanging out a window waving! We
ran into our girls AGAIN!!! This time driving with their contact….their contact who knew
where we lived!!! Praise GOD!!! A 20 minute (free) drive turned into an hour and a
half. But God used that time to get to know their contact, his vision, and pray for his ministry. He used it to bring 3 squad sisters together encouraging, loving, and laughing together.
We arrived safely home at 7:30pm, enough time to eat, change, and get ready for worship.
The Lord had our day.
He had ridiculousness waiting for us around every corner. But we had to listen to his voice, trust him, and wait (alot).
The Shepherd had more and we got to live in the MORE.
He had MORE than I could have ever
created or imagined in that day.
And as I sit here ready to go out on the streets I ask you again Lord.
Take my night. Take it all!
Lead the way, have your way.Take me on a God adventure. Take all of me and do your thing….I stand in
awe of my King!! My Dad. My Husband. My Savior. My weapon and shield. Thank you Father for all that you have tonight. Let’s DO IT!!
