It started out as a typical Tuesday morning doing some ATL, ask the Lord. So basically, we had no idea what God had in store for us, but we were eager for Him to show up. We decided to walk to a mall that is about 2 miles away. Before leaving, we prayed and asked God to interrupt us the whole way there with people He wants us to connect with. He did just that.
We walked a couple blocks down from Shawn’s house, a great guy who was letting us stay at his house for free, and prayed for a couple people that were walking past. It can be a little awkward and a bit confusing when trying to pray for someone who only understands Portuguese, and all you know how to say is hello. Nevertheless, with a little help from some teammates and a little charades, the point eventually came across.
Eventually, we came upon a restaurant. While we are walking up, the Spirit highlights one of the men standing outside. I walk up to him, say my one line, “Oi,” which translates to “hello” in Portuguese. I proceed to ask if he speaks any English. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t. I begin my usual charades and then throw in a little Spanish hoping he understands, when a lady comes from behind us and asks, “Do you need help?” “Yes,” I tell her. She agrees to help translate for us but she indicates that her English is limited. I tell her, “We are missionaries from the USA, and we want to pray for this man.” She looks at me blankly, apparently her English was more limited than she thought. She askes me to wait for a moment, then bolts inside the restaurant. While we are waiting for this lady to come back, the original man we are wanting to pray for decides that he is done waiting and walks away. At this point, I’m a little discouraged and a tad bit annoyed. But God was up to something bigger. Two minutes later, the lady comes back out with a young man in his mid 20s who speaks perfect English named William. After talking for roughly twenty minutes, we found out that he is the son of an American father and Brazilian mother and working at a missionary base here in Brazil. A great contact for the World Race to be able us use to send future teams to in the future. He was a blessing to us as we were to him encouraging each other to continue in our common goal, to further the Kingdom of God.
During our goodbyes with William it started to sprinkle. We had prepared for this by bringing our rain jackets out with us, the first time mine had seen any use. We walked three maybe four blocks and with every step we took the rain came down harder and harder. When we approached the fourth intersection the Spirit prompted me to go inside the pharmacy across the street. I asked the team, “Do any of you have a clear direction from the Holy Spirit?” After getting 4 no’s I smile and start crossing the street making a beeline towards the pharmacy saying behind me, “I do.”
We quickly opened up the glass doors and file inside, desperately wanting to be out of the downpour. As I analyzed the situation before us, I took the hood off my head, rubbed my shoes on the big black welcome mat, and waited for a moment as water dribbled down my jacket onto the floor. There were three men in the store, two employees behind the counter and one customer milling around the shelves. Eric, one of my teammates and I immediately start walking toward one of the employees named, Àvila. We enact our normal routine, while he just looks at us and smiles. He takes a couples steps to the right towards a computer and moves the monitor towards us, pulls up Google Translate, and slides the keyboard towards us. For the next 20 minutes or so we talk to Àvila through Google translate.
“We are missionaries from the USA, is there anything we can pray with you about?”
“Yes, my family.”
“Anything specifically for you?”
“Pain in my heart.”
The Holy Spirit prompts me to ask, “Physically or emotionally?”
He takes a deep breath and types, “I have two kids at home and my wife just left me.”
“Can we pray for that right now?”
“Yes!”
For the next few minutes we intercede on his behalf bringing Àvila’s needs before the Lord.
After this we ask, “Do you have a church?”
“No…I haven’t been to church since I was 14. Which was 10 years ago. I am too ashamed to go back to God.”
The Holy Spirit prompts us to pull up the story about the Prodigal Son.
He takes a few minutes to read over the story. Then types, “Amen!”
We type, “God is not looking for perfect people, He is looking for broken people to make perfect.”
“Amen!”
“God sent missionaries thousands of miles to come and talk to you today to show you how much He loves you and He wants you.”
“Amen!”
“Do you want to have this relationship with God?”
“Yes!”
What happens next is something that I would have never even crossed my mind to do, but God knew.
Eric and I begin to type out the sinner’s prayer as he reads it through Google Translate. Someone’s soul went from eternal death to eternal life because of a computer program!
We tell him about this church that we first heard about during our conversation with William outside the restaurant.
He types, “I want to continue talking to you guys.” Then he adds us both on Facebook.
We encourage him some more as the Holy Spirit begins to lead us out of the store. We walk down the street, fully dry because it had since stopped raining. We encountered a few others on the streets and inside a bakery that we were able to pray with.
After a few hours we finally completed our two and a half mile walk to the mall. We got some much needed ice cream as we reflected on what God had done through us. God used these experiences to show me that if I allow Him to “interrupt” my life, he will give me and those around me true life.
