Our ministry host greeted us with, “Today, our ministry is a treasure hunt. You will work in pairs of 2. Pray for half an hour to see what/who the Lord wants you to find, and then spend 3 hours finding your treasure.”
Some in the group had done similar exercises before, some were excited to jump right into this new thing, and some were skeptical, but we partnered up and ventured off to pray. My group ended up being a group of 4- Kaiti, Janibel, Sarah, and me. We left the crowded building to find a place to pray alongside the building and sidewalk. Amidst the people passing by and the hesitancy in our minds, we asked the Lord to give us a picture/word/direction for the day. Janibel spoke up first, saying, “This may be kind of hard…I haven’t seen anyone in plaid besides people on our squad since we’ve been here…but I see someone in a plaid shirt with something red.” Kaiti spoke up next saying she saw a smiley face. I kept hearing “Go right,” and Sarah didn’t hear anything at first.
So off we went to the right, searching for these seemingly random treasures from the Lord. As we walked, we had to laugh as we passed a ton of people in plaid shirts…whereas before we thought that would be the hard part. Okay, God…we see ya. We kept walking and saw a big smile as an advertisement for a dentist…another sign that we were on the right path. We kept walking and Sarah mentioned that it may just be her mind, but she kept seeing pink flowers. So we added that to the list and kept searching.
We walked for about 45 minutes, and to be honest were all a little unsure of if we would ever find what we were supposed to be looking for. We ran into another group and they prayed for us, which was encouraging and off we went. About ten steps later, we saw a smiley face on the front of a restaurant. We decided to stop…but were unsure of what to do next. Do we go in and talk to someone? Is this our place? Are our pictures all going to be in one place, or are they different people? As we were trying to figure out what to do, a server brought out a dish to a table outside. There were pink flowers on the dish. Again, we hesitate and discuss what to do. All of a sudden, a guy in a plaid shirt and red shoes walks into the restaurant and right out again. All of our signs in one place! Now we had to go in.
Two of us walk in to see if there are any free tables or people that stand out to us. In the back of the restaurant there was a free table next to a table of 3 guys-2 of which were in plaid shirts. We decide to sit and try to have a conversation with them. After some small talk, they asked us why we decided to come into that restaurant. Kaiti looked at me and said, “I think now is the time we tell them…” But all of us were a little unsure of how you tell them that we prayed and God led us there. But we did our best to explain and then asked them if we could pray for them and if there was anything specific. The one who had been the most talkative just asked for general prayer, but the guy who had been quitter asked us to pray for peace. After praying, I felt that the guy who wanted peace was searching for something, so I inquired about their beliefs. Again, the more talkative man immediately responded that he was Hindu and we talked about that. The quieter man never answered about his beliefs. We chatted with them more, took a picture, and got their names to continue praying for them. Upon leaving, I told them we’d continue to pray and they responded with a chuckle and said, “Good. Thanks. Maybe something good will happen.” I laughed and thought, “He has no idea.”
We all left, surprised that all of our “random” pictures came together in one place. We don’t know what came of that conversation or why we were led to talk to those men that day, but we know that we were led there with a purpose and maybe some seeds were planted. We’ll continue to pray for peace and for them to come to know Jesus and all the good things that come from that.
I learned a lesson that day…one I continue to learn. God wants to speak to us and he can do so much when we just give him the space to move. Our whole group was surprised that we heard from him and that it actually came to fruition, when in reality we shouldn’t have been surprised at all and should expect that daily. If you haven’t taken the time lately to just listen to God, I encourage you to take the time to do so and see what treasures he may be leading you to.
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