8/20/20
This blog is going to be a little different than others I’ve written because this blog is a joint blog and you get 2 perspectives. We had a pretty big ask the Lord ministry day and my friend Rebekah and I want to share it with you together.
I’ll give you one small hint off the beginning: the title of Peace comes from someone we met and ministered to this day, but he comes into the story later.
We started our morning off with listening prayer for words and images from God to guide us in our day of ministry. Both of us will share our perspectives of that morning.
Sabrina: As I ask the Lord for what He wants me to do in ministry, I’m always surprised by the seemingly random images and thoughts that come to mind. There’s always a hint of doubt in me that I’m discerning correctly because I know some things come from the flesh and not the Spirit. I honestly can’t describe to you how I know what to pay attention to. Somehow, I just know intuitively. Or, I think sometimes God takes what I think I’m hearing and uses it anyway even if it wasn’t a message from him.
But this morning I felt like 2 completely random things were from God: -The US flag -A coffin and possibly cemetery
I’ll tell you that I don’t always interpret right or maybe it would have gone well either way, but my first thought with the flag was that all the sisters in Temple Square have the flag of their home country on their name tags. I thought maybe I was supposed to go there and minister to the sisters we met a few days before or meet some others. But how on earth would that fit with a coffin unless I ended up talking to someone about death?
Rebekah: We were given some time to sit with the Lord and ask him to reveal an aspect of the day so we would know where to go. As Sabrina mentioned it’s not always a very obvious answer. For me I saw a woman in a park feeding birds or possibly ducks. My thought was that we needed to go to the park. We all gathered and stated our visions. Everyone had what seemed like very vague answers but Ryan said “Ogden.” We took all the ideas to the Lord in prayer and I asked Him if we were supposed to go to Ogden. I heard “yes” so I confirmed Ryan’s direction. The others agreed and Ryan decided to park by the cemetery in Ogden.
Sabrina: Here’s a list of the things everyone heard that morning: -American flag -coffin/graveyard -barber/beauty shop -woman feeding birds or ducks -mall by temple square -man made body of water (fountain?) man sitting lower and people walking by him in public place -red tie with white dots (maybe Mormon guys that evangelize in the neighborhoods) -kids playing soccer in park -Ogden -mural with teal and purple (triangles) -green and purple, argon design pyramid like on the dollar bill
As we sat and discussed, Kris also felt she was receiving a list of the teams that were supposed to go out together for ministry:
-Erica Everett, Sabrina, Rebekah
-Hannah, Bethaney, Connor
-Ryan, Eva, Kris
(It was administration planning day for Erica Jenkins and Kellie)
Rebekah: We got to the cemetery and Erica shared that she had been thinking about her Abuelo lately. He passed away during quarantine and her family was unable to have a funeral. I shared that I did not have a recent death in my family but I had the fear of death. When my grandma had heart surgery I feared losing her and faced a lot of spiritual warfare. Sabrina shared more details about her mother’s death. We stopped and sat on the ground. We noticed there was a funeral going on so we prayed for the family.
Sabrina: As we walked into the cemetery there was a funeral happening just ahead of us. Rebekah and Erica began talking, as she said, about our experiences with death. I felt like we were supposed to pray over the funeral but that I was also supposed to let our conversation happen first. I stopped in the shade a ways down from the funeral, where I hoped we wouldn’t be conspicuous, and that’s where we sat down. One member of the family in the funeral also appeared to be special needs so we prayed over the family for that need as well as their loss. Then I saw a worker on his riding mower down the way and thought maybe we should go talk to him. As I stood up, Rebekah pointed out that there was an American flag engraved and colored on the standing grave marker nearest where we were sitting. I was shocked. It seemed like amazing confirmation that we were supposed to stop and sit there. There was also a name on the side of the stone facing us that wasn’t the same as the name on the other side that was clearly the person buried there. I don’t know if she is still alive or not, but I felt like praying for her so we did.
Rebekah: As we finished praying we turned around and I noticed that there was a flag painted on the grave directly behind us. After getting excited about seeing the flag Sabrina had envisioned she prayed for a name written on the side of the grave. We kept walking and ran into Arthur. We spoke to him for awhile and learned that he was catholic and had worked at the cemetery his whole life. We spoke to him about the origin of names and prayed for him. Sabrina asked him if he knew of a nearby lake so we could follow my vision of a lady feeding ducks. He told us about a nearby river so we turned around and headed that way noticing gravestones along the way. We noticed a large collection of grave stones written in Asian languages so Sabrina prayed for their ancestors.
Sabrina: Arthur was the worker I noticed and it was really cool to see how excited Erica got in talking to him about the meaning of Arthur coming from King Arthur. Names are something that she loves and I’m so glad she carried that into our time together as a group. The river he pointed us to was back on the other side of the cemetery so we headed that way and that was when we saw the section with Asian writing: These graves were old and run down and clearly stood out from the rest of the cemetery around them. I felt bad realizing this probably led to them to being vandalized. I wanted to pray for protection over those graves and their families and generations. Just down from that section I saw another worker. He was kneeling down on the ground amongst sprinklers, reaching into a hole in the ground to work on them. I felt God say “this is the man made body of water” and I thought maybe this was the kneeling man too. So I stopped to talk to him. His name was Jeff.
Rebekah: We kept walking and we all noticed Jeff. We waved and saw how he looked up and fully responded. We stopped and began asking him questions about the cemetery. He was so helpful and we began asking him about his life and family. He shared that his mother died recently and he loved her. He shared that he used to be homeless and had to work very hard to graduate in his 40’s. He told his mother he would graduate so he did! He walked and got his diploma. She passed within the next year but he was so excited that she saw him graduate. We asked if he knew what his name meant and when he said he did not, I googled it. Jeff means peace. He seemed very pleased with this fact. I wanted to comment on our conversation but I heard God say “listen” so I let him continue speaking. After he finished, I asked him if he had ever asked God for a sign that he was real and he admitted that he did. Sabrina, Erica, and I all told him about Ask The Lord.
Sabrina: I felt it was really important to tell him all the signs leading to him, including the water and him kneeling. And the fact that just a few feet away there was ANOTHER American flag! We were clearly supposed to be there talking to him! He was really moved because he was kind of between believing and not believing in God, but much closer to the believing side. He had somewhat trusted God throughout all of his struggles with homelessness and we encouraged him that his strength mattered and God wanted him to know that he was seen and known and loved and we were there to tell him about it and help him learn how to accept salvation and love God.
Rebekah: We all confirmed that the Lord has heard him and sent us. He teared up a little bit and said that he was shy and was surprised he felt so comfortable speaking to us. He asked us if we were single since we were missionaries and stated that he was single. I noted the sadness in his voice and explained that I was single but I knew God was “my person.” I told him that God loves me more than anyone else ever would and I love Him more than I would ever love anyone. I could do no wrong in His eyes and He would never leave me. I told him he could have the same and we asked him if he wanted to accept Christ. He said yes but said he did not know what to pray. I read Romans 8:26 to him. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” I told him he could pray silently if he would like. He closed his eyes and prayed. Sabrina asked him if he would like to repeat after her and she prayed a salvation prayer! I then told him to remember his name means peace and that every time he hears “peace,” I pray he will remember this moment. He smiled and thanked us for stopping and talking to him. It was lunch time so Erica gathered his information and the three of us hurried to the van. As we walked back, we shared our revelations about our time in the cemetery.
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24 ESV
Sabrina: I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and learning more about what ministry looks like when you have a team of believers with you. My prayer is that you will seek out your own community to minister with. Ministry means just living a life for Jesus and wanting to spread His love and goodness to everyone you meet.
