What a time of change this has been. I had no idea what to expect or what was to come the day of arriving at Georgia. After hanging out with some of the group before in Athens, it was finally the day to drive to camp and get to know the rest of the group! So exciting! Singing and eating and singing and dancing in the car on the way! We were finally there. So we all arrive with the adrenaline pumping, wanting to get started. I knew from the beginning that I was at such vulnerable spot and only in the days to come would I realize how vulnerable I was. I was broken down so much, I don’t remember crying so much ever in my life. I was broken down, gave up things that had been holding me back for years, that I had no idea I was still holding, and finally gave up
FEAR.
Fear of not knowing, fear of stepping out and not being caught, fear of the past, fear it won’t work out, fear of not being good enough, not doing the right thing, and in giving up all these things I was finally able to live. I was able to be in a community completely open to everyone showing the best side of me and the, what I would call, worst. I wouldn’t change anything that happened at that place, even though at the time I was scared of what was going on, now I know it was all for a purpose. Such a beautiful process it was. There were many days that changed me, but one that I want to tell you about in particular is a day when we were able to go out to the community, to Little Mexico. This was a day of praying and asking the Lord (ATL) where to go. We prayed, seeking vision in prayer, and some of you might think this is crazy because I know I would have before it happened, some seeing red, a kid playing with a Frisbee, red cloth other things, and I was seeing two things but was thinking how in the world will this come together to send me somewhere. What I saw was a Japanese flag and a round sewer drain. So we get there and are walking around for a while meeting people following the visions they saw, now I’m going to fast-forward to the part that changed me. We were walking along the road and we walk next this building were two girls in my group,
Jamie and
Caiti, felt called to pray. So the rest of the group is a little way up the street, connected to this building they are praying for, is a building with every countries flag, EXCEPT for Japan. So I was thinking is this where I am supposed to go, no it can’t be, I don’t see my flag. I start looking around, kicking rocks, and see something on the ground. I see a sewer drain, now this isn’t like all the other sewer drains I have seen around the town. This drain flat out says “
SEWER“. “
WHAT?! Are you kidding me?!” So now I know that this is the place, and I don’t want to go in. It takes a little bit and we all go in as a group, walk around, say hello to the owner. I know that I am supposed to talk to her. So I have no idea what to do and walk out of the store. I don’t get very far before I stop. I’m thinking, “I don’t have to talk to her now, we are going to be walking down the street. I can talk to her on the way back.” Then thinking, “I can’t refuse, I don’t have to know what to say, this is God working not me, I didn’t know I was coming here anyway.” I look back at the store she is walking out the door with a fake tree and I just starting walking straight at her. Here goes nothing,
God do your thing. Not knowing that at the same exact time Jamie turned around felt the need to follow me. So I get to the lady and say “I feel at though I need to pray for you, your business or something.” She has no idea what we said. We repeat, “prayer, business, store” and Jamie holds her hands up in prayer. The lady replies, “Yes, Yes, come in.” Waving us into the store. Oh my, this is really happening, at the same time I am feeling so comfortable. She starts listing off all these things she needs prayer for. We pray for her and when we get done she said she could feel it. It was AMAZING! The woman, Mary, asks, “
When are you coming back?” We get huge smiles and let her know about the World Race and how we are there for the day. And tell her we can stop by later. She replied, “Yes then you can meet my son and daughter and pray for them also.” We end up coming back earlier than planned, because walking we can’t get her off our mind. Like nothing I have ever experienced before, chills like I have never experienced, I felt like I was floating in the clouds. We go back, and her son and husband are there. We pray for her son and ask if she needs lunch and where a good place to eat is. So we go across the street and walk in, and the menu is in Spanish. We don’t know Spanish. The lady working, Rosa, is full of joy, a beautiful woman loving life.
So we talked to her in English, thank you Lord or that would have been a long lunch. Ha. We joke and have a good time with her, she tells us how business isn’t so good with the economy and such. We eat and I see these awesome bracelets as we check out, she gave us a couple for half price. We were called back to meet with group during lunch, so we visited Mary again before leaving, we didn’t know if we would be back. Met with the group, while they were praying for the woman that had the red cloth, and they hadn’t ate yet. We told them about the joyful woman Rosa and decided to go back there and eat. On the way we ran into another group that hadn’t ate and they joined us. So we all eat and I am hoping that Rosa and her husband aren’t overwhelmed by all of us in there. All they had great thanks for bringing the others in. After saying our good-bye’s we went back to Mary and hung out before we had to leave. We played with a little girl while she was in the store and then said our good-bye’s to Mary and ended up getting her address to stay in touch. What truly beautiful women they are, and because of what happened that day and knowing them,
I am changed.
