So, I spent the last 10 days at training camp. It was an absolutely incredible week, and so many things happened, I cannot possibly fit them into one blog. So in my next few blogs I will be sharing more and more about the changes God has put on my heart, most of them starting because of these past 10 days at training camp.
One phrase that kept coming up during the week was, "When God showed up." The people training us kept asking us to tell stories of "When God showed up."
At first, I wanted to give my Sunday school answer, "well people, God is always here, we don't have to wait for Him to show up." But as the week went on, I started to gain a deeper understanding of what they were talking about.
But towards the end of the week, we got our activity for the day, and I felt my heart moan in anxious loathing.
Evangelism.
Now it may seem strange coming from a girl who is about to spend the next year being a missionary, that I didn't want to evangelize. But I cannot count how many Christian Conferences I have been to where they send us out into the streets to tell people about Jesus, my result has always been an epic fail. I can remember once, just once, where someone even let me pray over them, besides that it had been slammed doors or "oh no thank you" and a quick exit. I was tired of being a missionary here, people assumed door-to-door missionaries were "crazy bible-thumpers" and I was tired of that stereotype.
But here I stood, my internal eye-rolling and all, getting directions to evangelize again.
Then we got to the interesting part of the directions, "Go pray about where you should go."
"Okay," my internal conversation said, "this could be interesting," So my team went back to our campfire and started to pray. I closed my eyes and asked the Lord to give me something. Suddenly, I got a picture of a young mother and her son.
I told my team what I saw, and the Julie stated she saw a pregnant woman while Roni said she also saw a young mother at Walmart. A few days before we had traveled to Cleveland, TN and had stopped by a Walmart to get green face paint so this seemed like a good place to start.
After about a 45-minute drive to Cleveland, we went into Walmart to eat some Subway. After lunch, we just started walking around, I felt like I needed to travel off on my own so we discussed a meeting place and I went over to the toy section, truth be told, I really just wanted a toy to play with!
I turned down the truck isle and saw a little boy knock over a bunch of trains. I stopped and helped his mom pick them up. I introduced myself and explained to her why a girl from Omaha was here in a Walmart in Cleveland, Tennessee. Then I asked if there was anything I could pray with her about. Where I got the courage to ask her that so randomly is proof alone God was there in that moment.
She paused for a moment and then I saw her eyes moisten. She pointed to her son and said that he was born with a cleft palate and he was going to have more surgeries in the coming months. As I knelt and prayed beside little 2-year-old Keegan, I could feel the Lord's presence protecting this young child. I finished praying, and he gave me a "pound" and I stood up. His mother embraced me, with moistened eyes, whispered, "Thank you."
As we parted and I headed back to our meeting place, I realized I had gained a deeper understanding of "When God shows up."
