This week, we were surprised with what Global challenge likes to call a “challenge.& rdquo;
This challenge was a “mini Luke 10” challenge based on Luke 10 in the Bible.
“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road. Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay. If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you now,’ But if the town refuses to welcome you, go out into the streets and say, ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this-the kingdom of God is near! I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on judgment day.”
We were handed the envelope for the challenge at 11am on Wednesday and the challlenge began! The blue team was on yet another adventure together, this time facing the Guatemalan country! We headed back to our house to gather our things, pray for our sick team member (he was healed!), and prayed some more after having a time of worship. Around 3:00 we were on our way with a few word pictures from the Lord of specific people we were to talk to along the way, two town names we felt that we were to go to, and only $3 US dollars to our name as a group (which we were told we were not to spend on ourselves, but we were to sow into the Kingdom of God). From Panajachel, we felt like we were to go to Guatemala City and then return the next day to a nearby town of San Tiago. With a 4 hour bus ride a head of us, no money and it raining cats and dogs outside, we walked up to the first bus in faith and asked them if we could hop on for FREE. The bus was only going to a town 20 min. away, but the bus driver let us on. On that bus ride, we met a man who was going to another nearby town where a connection bus to Guatemala city could be caught. When the bus stopped, it was pouring outside. The man disappeared- we thought all was lost, but then we saw him come back around the corner and offer to pay for the next leg of our journey to the connection town! God is so COOL!
When we arrived in the connecting town, we hopped of the bus walked across the street and tried to get on the first bus to Guatemala City. The first bus turned us away, but the second bus happily let us on! It was in this bus that we were packed on very tightly. In an old Bluebird school bus, there were seven people sitting across… at some points, I was sitting in the aisle between the two benches on either side. Although in normal situations this would not be ideal, in ours, we couldn´t have hoped for more! People were stuck with us and they had to talk to us! We had a captive audience for 3-4 hours and we talked to people about the Lord, prayed for people, encouraged people and even gave some people Bibles! Though we cannot speak Spanish very well, God gave us the understanding and the vocabulary to talk to people for up to an hour in Spanish conversation. One lady that I was sitting next to and had the opportunity to pray for ended up helping us when we got to Guatemala city. As our bus trip was coming to an end, we had no where to stay for the night. I expressed to this lady our situation and she said that she would help. With only 3 US dollars to our name, we couldn´t sleep in a hotel for the night, and she ended up talking to the bus driver about letting us stay in the ¨bus facility.¨ When we hopped off the bus, God had provided Q100 or $14 for us! On the stoop of the ¨bus facility¨ other passengers that had heard our story and the work we are doing in Guatemala, they started handing us a little more money. By the time all the people had gone and we were left on the sidewalk alone, we had a little over Q160 or 23 US dollars to our name. Then, the bus driver stuck head outside the ¨bus facilities¨ and motioned for us to come in. We walked into a room with tile floor and tires. Here, the man said we could sleep the night for free.
After sitting in the corner of the room (where we were told we would be able to sleep for the night) we took out our Bibles and began praying about our purpose in Guatemala City and thanking God for the things He had done. During that time, I looked up and one of the men in the room watching TV looked and asked if I was reading a Bible. I said ¨Yes.¨ I then took the opportunity to explain to then who we are and what we are doing in Guatemala. I explained to them that God had told us to come to Guatemala City to pray for people and how it was a journey of faith. We told them of the miracles of the day. I told them how we had no money to get anywhere or to eat with, but God provided along the way. I realized that the table of men were no longer watching the TV, but they were listening to me. I heard them say to each other that we were ¨real Christians.¨ I then handed the men a Spanish- English Bible I had been given in Peru. The as they passed the Bible from one person to another, I gave them scriptures to read. They smiled and flipped through the pages and read the words written on the page. I asked the men if they all had Bibles, there was one man who didn´t and he took the Bible with a HUGE grin on his face.
For me, this was the highlight of the whole adventure. These men had heard a testimony of the miracles of Jesus Christ. They had opened up to read the Word of God. They had read truth and now one of them has the opportunity to own the truth personally and can access it through the Bible. I am not sure what God did in the hearts of those men that night, but I know that seeds were planted if not plants watered. That night we went to bed on that concrete floor on top of carboard boxes thankful that God had spoken, God had provided, God had used us, and people´s lives had been changed because of Him in us.
Morning came and we set out to get to San Tiago. Along the way we met a few people, prayed for a few people on buses, at bus stops, and in food courts. We were blessed with breakfast, had enough money from the previous night to get the direct bus to San Tiago, and met fellow believing evangelical Christian Brothers along the way. We arrived in San Tiago full of faith and expectation about what God was going to do next! Immediately we started making friends, we met girls on the street that we were able to accomplish some of our challenge tasks with, we met some women who taught us a song in a Mayan tribal language, and we even talked two tuk-tuk drivers into having a race for a coconut! On the streets in the market, we met a German couple. As we were asking them for answers to our ¨challenge questions,¨ we began to tell them our story. As we told them who we were and what we were doing, their hearts became opened to us. They offered to buy us dinner and helped us find a place to stay for the night. I believe these two were the reason that God sent us to San Tiango. We got to testify about what god had been doing in our lives and we got to pray with them. Though they were not Christian, I believe that God touched their hearts and watered a seed that was planted.
The next morning we had a huge breakfast with our new found friends, said our goodbyes and hit the town. We met several people in the town. One of our many tasks of the challenge was to draw pictures, sell them in the streets, and use that money earned to bless a poor child with new shoes. Oh, this was my Favorite!!!! We got to bless not one, but two kids with shoes. As we gave these people shoes, we got to explain to them that God had told us to come and told us to pray for them! Though we couldn´t explain the gospel in great detail, as we prayed for the people we came in contact with, I could see the Holy Spirit working in their hearts
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As we left that town that day and headed back to Panajachel via boat, I just felt the Lord´s pleasure. Panajachel was just across the lake, but there adventure awaited us as well. We used the Q20 or $3 dollars we had at the beginning of the challenge to buy bread and lollipops. AS we handed out these goods on the streets, we prayed for people that we came in contact with. As the challenge came to an end, we sat on the curb and just thanked God for tall the people we came in contact with, the blessings that He had given us in miracles and in provision and praised Him for how awesome He ALWAYS is.
The Blue team won the Guatemalan mini Luke 10 challenge, but we gained even more than that. From this journey, I can´t deny the fact that God WILL provide for all my needs, that I can hear Him, I can be used by Him. Now, the challenge is, what does Luke 10 look like applied to every day of my life….