This morning we woke up to and got ready to say “good-bye” to this city. We were sad to be leaving, but knew that we had to go. We all got packed, said our good-byes to our new friends, and got ready to head out. Before leaving, we decided to have one last prayer time for this city and for our travels back to “Atlantis”. While we were praying I felt in my spirit…”do not leave, it is not time”. What? I don’t understand. What do you mean it is not time. All of our stuff is packed, the teams are expecting us to meet them, and we are ready to go. Again it came… “stop”. So…that’s what I did. I stopped and asked the Lord what this was. What He was telling me. What does this mean. I was in such a state of confusion I told the Lord He had to give me affirmation.
After our prayer time I shared this with my group and no one felt the Lord telling them to stay, but since it was so strong in my spirit we all agreed to stay this 1 day and see what the Lord revealed to us and showed us. We committed to each other and the Lord to stay in a constant state of prayer and listening.
I left that meeting with my heart broken…What? i was so confused. The entire time I have been here the Lord has been faithful and done amazing amazing things in my life and in the lives of the people we have been in contact with, but I didn’t feel a brokenness for this place… until that very moment. The moment He said to “stop…wait…listen…” He broke my heart. This has been my cry for the past 2 months, that the Lord would give me His heart, His eyes for His people and that every place my heart would be so broken that I would weep…He brought me to this point today. He gave me my heart’s desire for this place and it was such an incredible experience.
So…now the question was how do we explain to the maids, to our friends, to the hotel manager that we are not leaving today but staying another night. All I have to say is it was the Lord. Friske and I went down to where they were ready to pour all of our energy out so we could explain that we were not leaving and we needed to stay another night. We got to the manager’s office and within 2 minutes…I kid you not…2 minutes we had everything explained, our rooms booked, paid for, and a receipt. Praise God…He is good in ALL things.
Not only did God intervene in explaining this to our hotel staff but our new friend “Paul” (is his English name) came to help us get back to “Atlantis” and since we were not leaving invited us to his school, so we accepted.
We had about 4 hours before we had to be at the school, so we all decided that it would be good to just rest and soak in the Lord and see what He reveals to us. As I did my devo the Lord revealed some pretty amazing things to me, but just one that He kept telling me was “sincere love”. To love my team no matter what the decision is. Th fact that I was faithful and obedient in speaking forth what He was telling me, I had to now trust Him to work in their hearts and love them no matter what.
So…Around 5 this afternoonPaul and one of his friends came to our hotel and got us. He took us to his school where his English teacher immediately met us and took us in with open arms. He took us down to the sports field and we just began small talk about their country and our country and what we were doing. A we shared with one another, we found out that we were in a school that catered to 2,500 kids…WOW. This blew our minds…God is so good.
The man’s name is Mr. D. He kept asking us how long we would be in China and if we would take time to speak to the kids there. Not knowing what the Lord’s leading was we just kinda said we weren’t sure and left it at that. So…he decided to take us and show us inside the school he took us to the “English corner”…from what we could best tell it was like the teacher’s lounge for the English teachers. He invited 5 of the best students in to speak with us and practice their English.
Again…Mr. D kept asking us how long we would be here and proceeded to TELL…not ask…but tell us that we were staying at least 5 more days. So.. we said okay. We agreed to go tomorrow and speak to about 30 students. We found out that through out the year they have people that come in and tell about Christmas, so we have gotten permission to tell about Easter. Wow…we are so excited…so pumped.
As we were leaving the school, Mr. D invited us to go to his house for tea and snack…then it became dinner. So we sat and played cards while he and his wife prepared a delicious…yet so big dinner for us.
The Lord continues to amaze me everyday..all we have to do is be faithful.
So…the brown team will not be going with the other groups to Jade Tree. We will be staying here and letting the Lord continue to lead and guide us and show us where He wants us to minister. We will be meeting up with the others in 7 days or so.
Please keep us in your prayers as we allow the Lord to lead and guide us. Please pray for Mr. D and his family and for the kids that we talking to. Pray that the Lord will continue to open many many doors.
I leave you with a very simple verse…yet speaks volumes.
“Have Faith in God.” Mark 11:22
-Kim
Laura wasn’t able to go with us…she was sick, so this is what he sent back for her… hand fulls of we aren’t sure what. Hahaha.
