This post is a little bit out of order but I needed to write it down and get it out while it was still fresh in my mind. It takes place after both training camp and the announcement of my team.
The last night that Seth Barnes was here with us in Thailand, he talked about treasure hunting. Treasure hunting is when you ask the Lord to show you pictures, words, or colors that will lead you to someone who is weighing on his heart. It is usually someone who needs healing, someone who is desperately lonely, or just someone who needs to hear that the Lord hasn’t forgotten about them. My team and I prayed that the Lord would open our eyes and speak to us about who was on His heart. We prayed for clear visions and images and guess what? We got them. The only issue was that the things that we received seemed so unrelated and bizarre. For instance, I was shown flip flops, Chang beer, cargo shorts, and the word “Australian.” Umm, God? Am I hearing this right? One of my teammates, Simeon, was shown a shark and a flower and the name Susan or Sue. My team leader was shown a person sitting alone at a four-person table with their back turned to us. We didn’t know what any of this meant or how the Lord would connect it but we headed out to get dinner and promised to keep our eyes open.
We got to the food market and started looking around for a place to sit. Almost immediately I caught a glimpse of something that stopped me cold. There was a man sitting alone at a table for four wearing cargo shorts, flip flops, and a shark tooth necklace. His backpack was a flower pattern. This is the guy, we thought. We ordered from the vendor closest to him and were seated at his table. He was super open with us and eager to hear what we had to say. We learned about his family and what he was doing in Thailand. Before long, he told us that he had recently been in a bad motorcycle accident and had almost died. He told us that he still was not fully recovered and his body was badly scarred. He said that he had been unable to wear shoes because of the scars on his feet and that all he had been able to wear were flip flops. I told him that if God could save his life, then He could definitely heal his foot. We offered to pray for him and he smiled as he said yes. He also asked for prayer for his family, specifically for his mother… her name was Sue. Holy smokes! This was all too perfect! My teammates and I were able to lay hands on him and pray for physical healing and for the safety and well-being of his family as well.
There are many other little details that make this story so much more beautiful but I could never hope to capture it all. The bottom line is that the Lord will direct our steps and give us the words to say. He desires to use us to reach the lost and the hurting and we don’t have to convince him to let us help. The Lord is speaking over us constantly and if we take the time to settle down and listen, it’s amazing what He will tell us.
