To Quote Grace O’Hara “If there’s anything I’ve learned on these past 5 months on the Race, it’s that the Lord provides everything when you follow His lead. I’m getting to the point where I’m not surprised by God anymore.” – Grace’s Blog No More Surprises
The other day in Ohrid Macedonia after a very cool ministry/team time (I will tell you below), we were all out in the city with our new friend Joshua. We all stopped by one of the 365 churches in Ohrid and sat by some the crowded areas. We began to tell the stories that we are trying to memorize from the Bible that would be able to use when talking to people or groups. We told the woman at the well story, the accused woman story, the prodigal son and a few others. It was cool to see the people around us paying attention as we told the stories from the Bible then going into questions about them. Such as asking each other, what did you think about that story? Did you like it, why? Does it impact you or remind you of a time in your life?
Not long after telling these stories and talking with Joshua. He asks us, “Have we been desensitized by all the opportunities God provides us?”
We all paused at this question. Have we?
Apparently we all thought about it during our time on the race.
I mean God provided people in every country we have gone to. We have met and spoke to amazing people, had ministry opportunities happen in amazing ways. {Each team looked different.} Such as a kid’s organization in Cusco Peru, praying for people on the Camino, talking to the woman in Croatia and even buying water for a homeless family and giving them money in Podgorica Montenegro. God provided lodging and food in many ways even free lodging in some cases. Seen so many ways that God answered prayers. I would say I am still in awe of God and thankful. But I fully expect him to answer prayers. To provide for us in awesome ways. To bring people in our path for us to speak with and encourage. So am I desensitized? No. Am I surprised by God? No. He promised to answer our prayers. He promised to be with us. And He wants us to be reaching out to people. So why would it be a surprise? But it is still SOO cool to see God work in these ways… Now for the story that brought this blog about…
On the first full day of being in Ohrid Macedonia, we spent a several minutes praying and listening to God. He told some of us to be intentional with the people we meet. To go out into the busy parts and spend time meeting people. At this time, we also were going to meet our Poland friend, Joshua down by the water. We he arrived to where we were meeting, we met this older man, Zoran who owned one of the boats. We went on a short boat ride with him. He was a fun man and we had a good time getting to know him. Right when we got back on shore, he waved to a family that was passing by and they turned to us. It was very much a God moment. No other reason to explain the fact that we got back to shore the exact moment this family was passing. Anyway this family, Grayson and Debbie and their 5 children (2 boys Judah, Sam and 3 girls Piper, Evangeline, Selah) are missionaries from Texas. They were sent out by a church in Tennessee. We talked to them for a while and got to know them a little. They live in Ohrid and have been in Eastern Europe for over 18 months. We swapped information with them and went on our way to spend the afternoon with Joshua before he left to his next location.
This family are our people peace in this city. In the last few days, we had dinner with them at a restaurant where we got to meet some of the locals. Went to their home for Taco dinner and met another local named Clement. Forrest had a great time playing guitar with him. We played with their children while getting to know this family even more. We went to watch the world cup at Luna Pizzeria with them and played games.
Side note. The two oldest girls made me skip with them all the way to the restaurant. And made me sit by both of them. They loved it.
Now as I write this we are about to go celebrate the youngest, Selah, birthday. It is amazing how just opening ourselves to God and talking to people opened up the chance to meet this family. They have poured into us and I hope we encourage them.
But again Am I surprised by God? NOPE, Not at all. I just love him even more. And in Awe of him even more. And praise him even more.
