I want to update you what happened in Month 9 – Georgia. It was beautiful.
Georgia has been an amazing time of Ask the Lord ministry. This meant we were not partnered with a ministry host but was seeking out where we can build kingdom each day. The things that happened in Georgia varied a lot, but the theme we felt this month was about community and church fellowship.
At the beginning of this month I was able to meet with many tourists and share my stories of my testimony and who Jesus called himself to be. It started with going on walking tours where we went in hopes to pray for the city. But quickly turned into sharing our life stories with two new friends we made. We even went out the next day and enjoyed a sunset view on a castle and got to talk more about God and life!
Another time was when I was taking my sabbath, this person came up to me at a café and we started having really good conversations. He even ordered me a coffee before he came up to me knowing that we would get along and chat! He was Muslim and we got to share our faiths to one another! I shared with him that the Jesus had many amazing promises of hope and salvation, and encouraged him to read the book of John. The next day, it so happened that the one only bible store we happened to find, happen to also only have one copy of the book of John in English for sale! So I bought it for him and got to give it to him the next day during dinner!
We spent our Sundays at church services. We got to meet other long term missionaries and shared our lives together. It was a beautiful example of what community was meant to look like! They invited us over for meals, times of worship and prayer, and overall intentional loving fellowship! This is something I really want to bring back to Canada (or wherever I end up living), to invite people over, and to enjoy each others company and uplift each other.
With each day being an unknown and possibility of plans changing, that is exactly what happened. We had prayed to see where God wanted to place us in Georgia, and overall, he called us to the capital city of Tbilisi. But there was this undefined 3 days that we didn’t have our airBnB for. Within a span of a couple days, our plans totally changed and found ourselves on the road up to a small village called Stepantsminda! (To the famous mountain of Kazbegi). Lo and behold, the bible store we visited offered free Russian bibles for us to hand out. At the time, we didn’t have any use of it, but now that this popped up, it all made sense. We handed out bibles to tourists and locals in that village and prayed for the village. We hand painted pictures with georgian and russian bible verse and also handed those out. We even did a bible study on the top of the mountain, probably the coolest bible study ever!
Full story here: https://mallorygarrett.theworldrace.org/post/he-connects-the-dots-so-beautifully
And here: https://camichickonoski.theworldrace.org/post/ascend
Mallory had been feeling we needed to do soup kitchen ministry. So with her persistence of searching, after weeks later, we were able to partner with Caritas to volunteer! Our first visit was helping them sort clothes! We were able to sort so many clothes for them and they really told us it was a big blessing for them!
The next time we went, we got to help out the soup kitchen. These incredible women who worked there for 23 years really blew us away! They worked so hard and had so much love for those in need! They loved us so well and we felt like they were our grandmas! We really wish we had more time with them! They were the real superheroes of Georgia.
(Oscars perspective on it: https://oscarromo.theworldrace.org/post/all-i-could-do-lo-unico-lo-que-puedo-hacer)
Cami during this month also felt that God was leading her to this one specific coffee shop. While doing a bible study there, they started playing worship music! It turns out the owners were Christian and most of the staff were Christian! We got to bless them by our prayers and our presence, and just making connections with them. On our very last day of Georgia, we were there to do our mini debrief, and an electrical fire exploded above the kitchen in the vents! The lights went out, and smoke started to fill the room. I could see the flames. I believe we had purpose there to pray over the situation in that moment, and amazingly, the damage was minimal and the fire didn’t spread. It was a stressful time and we could see that the enemy didn’t want them to be a light in this town given that they were just starting out their coffee shop.
Please continue to pray for Coffee & Culture, the board game business that is ran there to make connections, the long term missionaries that are there, the amazing staff at Caritas serving those in need, and those who we got to share Jesus with! It really was an incredible time in Georgia! And these are just the highlights of the month!
Thank you for all your support and prayers! God bless!
Here’s a beautiful story of how we got to be apart of a wedding!!! (https://mallorygarrett.theworldrace.org/post/she-wore-white-he-wore-jeans-and-a-grey-shirt)
