Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
(Hello my family and friends)
I’m almost speechless as I sit here writing this blog from Planeta Rica, Colombia and I am so filled with thankfulness to God. I’m currently sitting in a chair at the altar of Centro Cristiano Amor y Fe Tierra de Benedicion which translates to Christian Center of Love and Faith, Land of Blessing. I give my thanks to God, recognizing that because of your faithfulness to Him that I am here. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for sacrificing your time and money to partner with me in doing the work of God around the world for the next 11 months. My goal is to keep you all as updated as possible. I want to do that through this blog, hopefully updating you all weekly. My focus will be keeping you up to date on what the Lord is doing on my world race.
I’m going to start now with my time before leaving for Colombia.
On Sunday, January 8th, I arrived in Atlanta to meet with my organization (Adventures in Mission or AIM) and be reunited with my squad. My squad is made up of 53 other young men and women whom I will be traveling with this year. The plan was to spend three days together fellowshipping and learning some necessary tools for us to use on our mission trip, but God had something different planned for me.
I found out on the first day that my Ghanaian visa for month 5 (May) of my race, was incorrect. Apparently when I applied for my visa I checked the wrong box. The result was a much shorter visa than what was required. I got a 3 month visa from the time of my application, which meant it would expire before I even made it to Ghana. My initial and natural stress-induced response was to completely freak out. In two days I was traveling out of the U.S. into Colombia. My passport was necessary to arrive in Colombia. The visa process takes around 4-6 weeks. There were now so many unknowns. My first thought was “How am “I” going to get this fixed in time?” Immediately, and I mean within seconds of these thoughts arriving, I heard God say “ Do you trust me”? Without hesitation, I responded “Yes!”. Even not knowing what was going to happen next, I understood that trusting God means following Him into unknown situations. Trusting God also means that I rely on Him to do things and not on my own strength. (Proverbs 3:5). After praying and relinquishing my fears and anxiety to God, I boarded a plane to Houston, Texas at 7 am the next morning. I was headed to the Ghana Embassy to straighten out my visa situation. I knew that God had a reason to send me to Houston, so I spent the night praying and having others pray over me to reveal His purpose for this detour. I trusted that there was a bigger reason than receiving a new visa. And there was one…
As I waited for the plane to board, I was exhausted. On previous flights, I’ve been known to fall asleep before the plane even took off. Instead, on this flight, I prayed that God would keep me awake and show me some of what He had in store for my detour. He did keep me awake and He had something big in store.
God sent me to Houston because he needed me in seat 16E. To some, it was a random seat selection but I know the truth. God had placed me in 16E because He had two women for me to talk to. He placed me between two Honduran women, One spoke both Spanish and English and the other spoke only Spanish. I introduced myself to both woman and proceeded to ask them about who they are and what their destination was. The women proceeded to tell me that before I sat down, they had been conversing upon who would join them in their row. They told me that they hoped that someone nice and sweet would sit next to them and not someone who was disinterested and rude. I laughed knowing at that moment, that I was exactly where God wanted me.
As the flight prepared for take-off, I began asking more questions, attempting and struggling to use my meager Spanish skills. The women revealed they were traveling back to Honduras. One of the women was traveling back to Honduras for a funeral. I felt the heaviness emanating off the woman as she described how she had to go take care of her husband and his mother who were struggling from the death of their husband and father. I discerned as she spoke that there was no one to comfort her. She had children around my age but they were not going to arrive in time for the funeral so it was only her. I realized she needed someone to comfort her. I started talking to her more about various subjects in an attempt to distract her from her sadness. We laughed about my travels and my meager Spanish. I asked her about Jesus and found that she was Jehovah Witness. The other woman was Catholic. My new friend told me how she believes Jesus is the only way to the Father.
I was pleased with our conversation and after a while, we fell to sleep. In my sleepiness, I was prompted to pray for her but gave in to my sleepiness. When the plane was close to landing, I awoke and asked her if I could pray over her. We locked arms, leaned our heads together, and I began a soft prayer for her. I asked the Lord to comfort her during her mourning and for Him to be her Rock and more. As I closed the prayer, she looked in my eyes and gave me the sweetest, most sincere smile, shaking her head. Interpreting her body language, she was telling me how grateful she was for my attentiveness and prayer. God used me to meet her need in those hours. For the remaining 15- 20 minutes of the flight, she never let go of my arm. As we sat, God told me I was being the Gospel for this woman. Sharing the gospel isn’t always just telling someone about Jesus. It can be showing them Jesus. In this experience, sharing the Gospel was comforting a grieving woman in her time of need and loving her even though we were strangers.
Yes, I flew to Houston for a day and had the opportunity to spent time with an alumni racer. She had just come off the field from her World Race and she was awesome. Yes, we enjoyed conversation and bonded over similar desires for our community. Yes, she took me to What a burger for my first time.. Yes, my visa was corrected and I got to share my trip with the Embassy woman who desires to travel. Yes, I went to a museum and experienced the beauty of Houston’s weather. Yes, God blessed me with all of these experiences in Houston. But I know my purpose happened on the plane where I got to bless a woman in mourning. That plane ride was my sweetest planerideever because I chose to push my Self aside and focus on others. In this case, a complete stranger.
My prayer for whomever is reading this is that you will not be so consumed with your own life that you forget to show people, strangers or not, who Jesus is.
Thank you so much for sharing in my journey by reading my blog. Go out and show people Jesus with your actions.
For more about my Colombian travels and my World Race, please stay tuned and please remain in prayer for me and this journey.
One way you can specifically pray for me is through funding. I have about $6,000 left to raise and I would ask that you prayerfully consider supporting me so I may remain on this mission trip. To support me, you can click the orange tab at the top of this page and donate any amount you choose. You can donate one-time or monthly until I am fully funded. Thank you again so much and God Bless.
-Shakila
