God put on my heart to make a sign that says ‘Free Prayers’ and to stand in the park to hopefully pray for people. I thought it was a great idea until a local told me otherwise…
Through other divine appointments, Daniel had made a Christian local friend that we got to spend time with. We talked about what we were doing around the world, and I shared what I was going to do one day in Armenia. He cautioned me quickly about standing openly out on the streets of Yerevan. He said sometimes locals may perceive you as having another agenda. They would call the police and you’d be brought to the police station. The police would question why you are on the streets, because in their minds, if you need help from God, you would just go to church. In the end, they’ll usually release you from the police station. He was telling me this because he had friends who went through this, but in is heart, he said do what God tells you to do. He just wanted to caution me of the risk.
I’ve also been told by others that locals aren’t receptive to have prayers as they believed that priests and other anointed members of the church are the only ones allowed to pray for your behalf. And if you are praying from the street, you might come from a cult. So that doesn’t sound very encouraging.
Over the week, that instilled quite a big fear in my heart! How much am I willing to risk for people to hear the love of Jesus? Is it worth risking to go to the police station and go through such incident? I mean, its not like I would be put into prison, but the thought of having to go through an event like that would be still quite a bit. Especially having to report to our organization and fill out those Incident reports. I guess it feels a lot more real when you are right here about to do something for the name of Jesus. If it was me sitting back at my comfortable home 2 years ago, I would be like, ‘oh yeah! I would go out there no problem!’.
Eventually there was a day where I had ‘no ministry’ to do, so I prayed and God put on my heart to go in faith to do this. I went out, found a park and a bench that felt right. I pulled out my ukulele (cause I thought it would be nice to lead in with worship) and put out my sign in my ukulele case and tucked it beside me on my bench. I guess I was still scared to just stand openly with a sign, so I thought if I just put the sign on the bench and played my ukulele, it won’t be so obvious! Turns out, people thought I was busking, and a man walked by and gave me 25 cents! LOL! I’ve now received my first official busking money!
I got up and went to another park. Actually saw a violinist who was busking, so I gave her that 25 cents instead. When I found a new bench, I did practically the same set up. What was cool was a lot of people who walked by smiled at me and gave me thumbs up! I think there is something to be said that a Ukulele just sounds like a lot of joy and happiness! What also struck me was, this must be a country where not a lot of people play instruments on the street. Not a lot of joy to be had, and when you bring that joy and smile to people while playing a ukulele, their face lights up!
Anyways, that didn’t work in terms of prayer. I felt God telling me, put away the ukulele and go stand there with the sign. Ugh! That was so nerve racking! I would have nothing to hide behind! I would definitely be brought to a police station at that point! But I did it. I put away the ukulele, and walked up to the side street and stood there awkwardly with my sign. I tried to overcome my fear by humming worship music and smiling at people that walked passed. What happened next blew my mind!!!
People actually smiled at me! Some walked by and turned around and said, ‘YOU MADE MY DAY!’. What! I can’t believe it! Just holding a sign, even when they didn’t come up to me, they were already walking away more joyful! Two people that saw me walked passed and smiled, but after a while they came back and wanted to ask me what I was doing! I didn’t have an answer prepared, so I just told him I wanted to share the love of Jesus and help people where I could, and that I’ve been going around the world helping people. He said to me, ‘Wow, this is so amazing! It is so weird to see someone doing this, but you are like a light in this place! I wish you good luck and lots of success in all this!’. What! That is nuts! I even got to pray for his friend who happened to also want to be an animator, and prayed for motivation and her depression. Both of which I am passionate about for people. She gave me the biggest hug after! I almost cried.
I had others come up and said, sure why not! I would love prayers! I couldn’t believe it! It was completely opposite of what I was expecting. I thank God that he showed me how a simple and awkward gesture of holding a sign that says ‘Free Prayer’ can bring so much joy into people’s lives. It reminds me that, we don’t have to do much or do something spectacular to do Kingdom work. It just takes a little faith and obedience to get out there and be the light. To show people that someone does see you and acknowledge you, and if they are willing to hear, that Jesus sees you and loves you more than anyone can ever love you.
