“Perspectives” is a guest appreciation post from my brothers in Christ Ben Skaar and John Sanchez. Here are their perspectives…
PERSPECTIVE FROM JOHN SANCHEZ
Of all the people God has put in my life, in the last year, I don’t believe anyone has influenced me in my walk with Jesus more than my brother Michael Trinity Williams. From the beginning what always inspired me about Michael was the ability to listen, ask questions and relate and connect with someone when having a conversation with someone. He was genuinely interested in understanding and knowing people. This inspired me drastically because before the race I struggled a lot in connecting with people through conversation. I remember how intentional he was about knowing everyone on our team that he would consistently write down our prayer requests in his journal as well as anything we were struggling with so he could be sure to pray for it on his own time. It is crazy to think that when I was on his team, this was a habit that I was inspired by and wanted to develop in my own life because it is something that is such a natural part of my life now.
I could tell you endless stories of how I have seen the love of Jesus flow through him, whether it was in the 80+ homes we visited together in Ecuador, the kids we played within every country we went to, or the way he has connected so deeply with every single one of our hosts as if they were his family. Spending every day with him for the first four months as well as a month in Kenya has taught me to love people beyond the level of my comfort. Whenever I feel tired or lazy and I am surrounded by a bunch of kids who want to play games, I think of Michael and how even when I know he is tired, still chooses to pour himself out into whoever he is with because he sees people the way God sees them.
Lastly, Michael is a dreamer. God speaks to Michael so vividly and so clearly giving him dreams and visions about the future that he writes down in his journal. After knowing Michael for a year and seeing the way he responds when God shows him these dreams, with faith and expectation that God will come through, it is no wonder why he continuously hears from the Lord. James 1: 5-6 says “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” The verse after says that the person who doubts must not expect to receive anything from God such a person is unstable in all his ways. I lived so much of my life not believing God for the promises he gives in scriptures and then wondered why I didn’t hear him give me promises that were specific to me. Why wasn’t he giving me direction and vision for my life? Observing Michael’s life and the way he has been obedient to Gods voice even when it was really difficult to believe God at his word, I was able to learn from his example on how to God at his word, pray bold prayers and believe crazy things by completely putting my faith in God. Since I have begun believing God for the little things he has shown me, he has continued to show me more and more visions and dreams just like he has with Michael. I am not saying that his faith is perfect and neither is mine. I am also not saying that the only reason God doesn’t reveal visions and dreams to you is that you lack faith. However, I am saying that I was not receiving from the Lord because I was not fully trusting him. I still wanted a safety net in case things went badly. I didn’t want to make God look bad. After taking inspiration from the faith Michael has, he has shown me how to believe God when he speaks to me and since then I have heard more from him than I ever had before.
PERSPECTIVE FROM BEN SKAAR
“Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? He’s my brother.”
(Remember the Titans)
I’ve been confused with one person this year, and, believe it or not, it’s my brother, Michael. A woman in Africa actually called out to me, “Michael, Michael…” I laughed at this situation in the moment, but when I think about it, it makes perfect sense.
Michael and I were able to form a bond over the first four months of the race as the only two male team leaders, and we became friends through that, but wow God had so much more in store for us.
Sitting on the floor in a Nepal hostel, we all were waiting for our new teams to be revealed as we embarked on month five of our race. I had found out already that there would be three male team leads and Michael was one of them, but I figured that I would be put on a different team with one of the other two to help them get up to speed and support them since I had faced many of the same challenges they were about to face. That’s why I was both surprised and extremely excited when I saw my new team; one Michael was leading.
God has done so much since then. Michael and I have truly become brothers. It’s almost impossible to put into words how we’ve loved, challenged, and supported each other these past six-ish months. All I know is that God had an incredible plan, and now I have a brother for life.
Michael has shown me what it looks like to truly be intentional, how to show my emotions and be incredibly vulnerable with another person, and I’ve learned so much from watching him and the amazing joy and magnetism that he walks in. He reflects God the Father maybe better than anyone I’ve ever been around, and I get to call him my brother.
Thank you Michael.
God Bless!
-Ben
