The Summer Saga of Running continues…only this time it
doesn’t have as much to do with falling (although
it has still happened), but more to do with how God is using running to reach people for Him.
In Ukraine,
I went on prayer runs through a village called Yasnia. On the last day that I
would be able to run in the village, I decided to run by myself. As I ran, the
normal doubts plagued my mind, like “Is this really doing anything? Should I
have brought a translator in case I have the opportunity to talk to someone? Am
I really listening to you, God?” This day, I decided to push those ideas out of
my head and continue on, even if nothing appeared to happen just like every
other day. This day would prove to be different, though. On my way out of the
village, I greeted a babushka (grandmother) and she stopped, so I stopped. She
immediately began speaking quickly in Russian (which I do not understand). I
shook my head, as in “I don’t understand,” but she continued to talk. Then, she
was crying and then she was hugging me and kissing my cheek! After about 10
more minutes of her talking and me listening, she said “Goodbye,” but then she
waited at the top of the hill waving at me as I continued my run until she
couldn’t see me anymore. While I have no idea what was going on with her, I
have no doubt that she needed love and God set up that appointment for the day.
I have been running in beautiful green hills and pastures.
(Romanian countryside)
I ran through a village with my camera on the way into the hills with the
intention of taking pictures of the picturesque views. On the way, people
sitting on their benches outside of their houses kept calling me over to talk
to them. Some wanted money, some wanted to marry me off to the nearest 50 year
old bachelor, and some just wanted to talk. At one of the benches, some girls
spoke some Spanish so I could actually communicate with them. After chatting
for a bit, they invited me into their house to talk more. We talked about our
lives in my broken Spanish and their Spanish that they learned from watching
telenovelas (Spanish soap operas – at least they are good for something…). At
the end, one of the girls pulled me aside to see if we could talk another time.
I am hoping to be able to talk with her more on another running adventure.
Also, in Romania,
some teenage girls who come to our afternoon kids’ program found out that I
like to go running. So, almost every day around 5:00pm, the girls come to the
house where we are all staying and want to go running or walking. They don’t
speak much English, so we spend most of the run either in silence or figuring
out some kind of charades or broken language Pig Latin to communicate. All I
know is that I feel life from the Lord
filling me and reflecting His love to these girls.
I have been greatly encouraged by these God encounters and
how He uses the things I love to do in my life to advance His purposes and shed
His light upon people I encounter. The cool thing? If He uses me in my life,
then I know He uses you in your life too – you just have to look for
opportunities.
