Last month in Ireland my squad had the privilege of working with Causeway Coast Vineyard Church. We did various things during the month: cleanup around the church, helping out on Sunday mornings, working with the youth, and helping out with many more ministries. In one day I went from modeling vintage dresses to being covered in mud and saw dust from pressure washing! It was a fantastic month – not to mention the gorgeous scenery.
One morning I got to be a part of a ministry at the church where people pray for people on the streets and in coffee shops. In the coffee shop my squad mate and I were told to ask for words and specific prayers for a group of women from the church who were sitting at a different table. I felt that God was telling me to go pray for a woman and her relationships with her children. After a little hesitation I walked over to the woman and asked if I could pray for her. She told me about her daughters and I prayed – a pretty normal experience.
Then the woman, Alyson, asked if she could share with me. She told me that earlier while asking God whom to pray for she had gotten the color green – I happened to be wearing a very green scarf. Alyson began to pray for the Lord’s provision over my life. She prayed that the Lord would pour into me so that I might pour into others. She told me that she saw a compassion and tenderness in my eyes and a desire to be a mother to those without mothers. Alyson told me she saw a child standing on the corner of a street without food and without anyone to love him and that I would be there to care for him. She prayed that the Lord would provide for me spiritually and physically – that He would meet any of my needs just as He had provided the impossible for Abraham and Sarah. The more she spoke the more tears welled up in my eyes. It’s difficult to explain exactly how I felt, but I was blown away! How could this woman that I had never met know the very desires of my heart – my hopes and my dreams – things that were so dear to me. Even thinking about it now I get the chills.
I then shared with her my desire to go to Uganda and to care for orphans. Alyson became so excited. She told me that a few years ago while driving down the road God had told her to start a children’s choir in Uganda. . She told me how the Lord had provided in miraculous ways and about the children in the choir. Alyson said that the children in Uganda felt like her own children and that my prayer earlier was more about Uganda children than her own daughters.
We sat in the coffee shop in utter excitement, overwhelmed with joy and love for our God that knows our hearts and desires and who places people in our paths at perfect moments to encourage us. After the coffee shop, my team decided to pray for the owner of the local fishing shop. He shared with us his prayer requests and also introduced us to his friend – who had just gotten back from a mission trip to Uganda!
I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe in a God who knows my heart and knows exactly what I need even when I don’t. God spoke through Alyson that day to encourage me to dream and to have faith in His plans for my life. I don’t exactly know what God has for my future, but I do know that He has given me gifts and abilities and that He will use me to bring glory to His name. I want to dare to dream and to live in the knowledge that my God will provide.
“To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Ephesians 3:19-20
