Hi guys! I’ve been in Malaysia for about a week now, and man, the Lord is really moving here. On Sunday, we got to go to a pretty western church called Kingdom City, and it felt so good to be able to relax and know we weren’t going to be called up at any moment to preach or share our testimony. We were just normal people that wanted to worship God and dig into his word.
Haley, Hannah, and I talked with a few people on staff at the church after the service and they invited us to come out with them on Monday night and prayer walk the streets. I was insanely excited, which I knew came from the Lord. That isn’t usually something I would feel called to do. Give me kids to play with. Give me manual labor. But just going up to people and asking if they know Jesus, and how I can pray for them, that’s a little out of my comfort zone.
On the way back to our hostel, I knew God had something big planned for Monday night. I knew it was him that had replaced my usual anxiety about wandering around the streets prayer walking with unexplainable excitement. That night, I woke up around three am, and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I laid there, praying and asking God what was on his heart, and who he wanted me to talk to. He gave me a few visions. Two visions were where my team and I should travel to in the next few days, and the last vision was of a red roof.
I literally laughed and told God those were all over Malaysia. How was I supposed to find that one roof? Monday morning came and my team and I went about our day, excited for what was to come that night. Around six pm, we headed towards Kingdom City Hub. The problem was, we had no idea where we were going. In retrospect, we should have taken an uber. All we had was an address that seemed to not even exist.
We had been walking for probably close to thirty or forty minutes when I saw a church. I told some of the girls I was going to run in and ask them for directions to Kingdom City Hub. We ran in, got directions, and left. On the way out, Hannah turned and looked at me and said “Taylor, it’s your roof!” I turned around and looked, and sure enough, it was my red roof. In that moment, I knew God was clearly telling me I had to find Kingdom City. He had work to do, and He knew how desperately my soul wanted to see it.
The directions given to us from the other church brought us to Kingdom City Church, not Kingdom City Hub, so the hunt continued. At this point, one of the girls suggested that if people wanted to, we could just buy some food and pass it out to homeless people on the streets. It was a good idea. We had been searching for the hub for over an hour at this point and still didn’t know where to go. Even if we eventually made it, there was a decent chance everyone would have already left to go prayer walk. But I felt a deep conviction in my soul that I had to find the hub.
There have only been a few times on the race where I knew without a doubt that I had to do something, and this was one of those times. I knew it wasn’t an option for me to give up, so we pressed on. ((Side note: Let me just say a huge thank you to the eight other girls with me. Not once did y’all ever try to stop me.)) I’m happy to say we finally found the Hub. Get this, it ended up being by the same street address Hannah has from home.
Christa and I were leading the group, and once we saw the building, we started running. Everyone was still in the building worshipping. Even though we were over an hour late, they hadn’t left yet. God is so good. We made it in time for one song, prayer, and then it was time to go. We all got split into different teams, which ended up being really awesome because it was easier for us to interact with the locals in our group and on the street. I was put on a team with Nate, Tando, and Penny. As soon as they introduced themselves, I couldn’t help but smile. Tando was the name of my teammate Kevin’s favorite kid from Swaziland. I knew this combined with the red roof, and the address only confirmed that this was exactly where God wanted me to be.
We got into Nate’s car and headed out to our designated spot to prayer walk. On the way, I heard the call to prayer fill the streets. That’s not my favorite thing to hear, especially late at night. It can be a scary. But in that moment, I felt so much peace, another gift from the Lord. We walked through the market, waiting for the Lord to highlight who He wanted us to talk to. We tried to talk to a few people, but they didn’t have much interest in talking to us, so we moved on. We were nearing the end of the market, when Nate saw an older woman sitting in a wheelchair behind her booth and told us to go talk to her. Penny, Tando, and I struck up a conversation with her, but God quickly told me it wasn’t her I was supposed to be talking to, but the woman beside her. I told Tando how I was feeling, and she had been getting the same thing. So, while Penny talked to the older woman, Tando and I started talking to the other woman.
While having a casual conversation with her, I was asking the Lord to tell me what this woman needed prayer for, but all I heard from him was that I was supposed to step back and let Tando do it. I was a little surprised. I felt such a strong connection with this woman, but I promised the Lord I would be obedient in whatever he asked me to do. So, I stepped back. Tando quietly told me she felt a lot of pain on the side of her head, and that she believed the Lord was telling her this woman needed healing in that exact spot. We asked her, and she said yes, she was feeling a lot of pain on the side of her head. A few weeks ago, she had an accident, and it left her with a lot of pain. We asked her if it would be okay to pray for her, and she said yes. We laid hands on her head, and commanded the pain to leave in Jesus’ name. She looked up at us, and said that it hurt a lot less.
Let’s stop here for a second. Take a minute to process what I just described. In that moment, my head was flooding with emotions. I told the Lord before I even went on the race that I wanted to see a healing. No wonder I felt such a desire to be at the hub that night. God was trying to give me what I asked for. Imagine if my team had given up. I wouldn’t have gotten this sweet gift from my Abba had we given up. The Lord spoke quietly to me as we walked away from this woman “See Taylor, trials are worth it.” We had wandered the city for over an hour trying to find the hub, and could have given up at any point. But we didn’t. We persevered, and in that, God gave me something I had been asking to witness for months.
As we were walking away, I told Tando that the Lord had told me to step back and let her do it. Her eyes got big, and she went on to tell me usually she is the one that hangs back, and lets other people pray for healing. It suddenly all made sense. He wanted me to step back so that Tando could see the authority that He has given her. He gave me a few words of encouragement, and as I spoke them over her, she told me everything I said was spot on. I truly believe that she left that market more confident in her relationship with the Lord, and that is an amazing victory.
We wandered the streets of Malaysia for over an hour and I know that it was one of my most spiritual moments on the race. He was testing me. He was testing my willingness to follow even when I am literally lost. He was testing my obedience. I’m not telling you to go get lost in the streets of Atlanta, but honestly, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing.
