Sarah. Joy. Cheerios.

Take today. All day long it’s been a mini roller coaster, not a massive one, of happenings at my ‘job.’

And it’s only 3:30!! haha 🙂

I was skyping at the Coffee Shop with one of my squad leaders, Rachel. She’s in Thailand and with 10 other girls ministering against the sex-slavery industry. We’re shooting the breeze, talking serious faith matters, and squad challenges, etc. And then Rachael had to step away for a minute. So I sat back in my chair and tuned my ear into some music coming through the computer. There were dozens of girls singing songs, worshiping loudly downstairs there in Thailand. I could hear them through my Skype call. They were worshiping to prepare at 9pm at night for their ministry they do from like 11pm to 3am. As I’m listening, a name popped in my head, and sat in my spirit. Weird. Very weird. I didn’t know what to think of this. Just a name. Maybe it was because my mind was wandering. But then I had to stop myself. Because I’m full of the Holy Spirit, and maybe God doesn’t just have no purpose. But maybe there was a purpose in me for thinking of this name. So, I go for it…

I ask the Lord, why is this name in my head, spirit? I think Lord, it’s because there’s maybe a girl named Sarah at this ministry. Maybe she’s worshiping right now. And I think Lord that she actually needs to stand on some things. Stand on something, or be prayed into, or given a word. Something. 

Okay, here we go…

So Rachel comes back to the computer, and I say, “Hey Rachel, I know this is SO SO random, but is there a girl in your group worshiping named Sarah?” She replies, “Umm, let me think, ummm, nope I don’t think so. Wait….ahh, no, don’t think so.”  So I say, “Well, I had this name Sarah pop in my head, and I think the Lord spoke it for a reason, like she needs to put herself out there, to hear something, or be spoken to.”

And then, Rachel says, “Oh my goodness (paraphrasing), wait a minute. Oh my goodness. Well, a few days ago one of the missionaries here came up to me and told me that my name is Sarah. That there’s promises that God has given me and I need to stand on those. That he has blessings, and they will come to pass. To be strong in that.”

Oh my WORD! Literally. I was so excited. Because in the midst of our Skype conversation about so many other things, as a minute of rest entered, and worshiping girls preparing to minister in Thailand was happening, God put a name in me, and I shared it. Risking looking like a looney (it’s normal in this community-risk). But it revealed such the goodness of God. Because He was wanting in that moment, for Rachel to know that it was her. It was her that God wanted to confirm some things with. It was her that he wanted to focus on. As leaders, we talk weekly so much about others. But God whispered to her, in a quiet way, such a strong and loud confirmation. 

Geez louise, I love moments like that. It built my faith up to know that God does things like that.

I left that Coffee Shop enjoying that conversation with her for so many reasons, and enjoying how amazing God is in such a unique way.

And then at 1pm, I’m catching up with two of my leaders, Thomas and Ryan. These two guys are stellar. They are leading 50 missionaries with such integrity and wisdom. I love walking this journey with them here from the states. You would think that they, living in the midst of poverty and oppression all around the world, that their joy would be challenged more than mine. Because here I am, living in a rich country, with comforts galore. Yet, even as I work in the ministry I have to work at keeping my JOY tank filled. 

And so as I’m talking with these two guys, about many different things – personal matters, team stuff, growth, dreams… – we start to close off the conversation on Skype and I realize something. These two guys exude JOY. It’s who they are. The whole time we talked, they couldn’t help but throw in jokes, laugh crazily, get animated, and make this call so much FUN. Here I am, counseling people all day long, and pouring into them, and often it has seriousness in it. But JOY. It was joy that filled this conversation. It’s JOY that we need. It’s not always a big God revelation, a deep theology….but joy! Thanks guys!

And then, later in the day like at 2pm, I was talking with Dre, she’s another squad leader we have for another squad. And she was sharing some challenges with things on the field. And she articulated well an analogy. So I ran with it, and ended up using cheerios to explain it. How sometimes you stick your hand in the cheerio box and you find in the mix of good lookin’ cheerios a brown gross looking cheerio. So, you might eat, but most likely throw it out. So then, we compared it to her situation where sometimes there’s brown gross looking pieces in a circumstance. It’s the dirty, offensive, hurtful, things – either done intentionally or unintentionally to us. But we can’t throw out all the good cheerios, just because there were some bad cheerios, you know?! It’s accepting that bad cheerios might get mixed into the good one’s. But digging through it to find all the good, and loving it for it’s goodness.

And in that moment, I really believe that God was moving in the conversation. That there were other moments of prayer, of some seeds of victory. But why not use cheerios as an analogy for the deep things of our lives. We all love them anyway right!? 🙂

SARAH. JOY. CHEERIOS. 

….yep 🙂

(sounds like it could be a name, haha)