Before this trip, I couldn't really tell you that I ever got clear messages from God. Sure, he definitely had a hand in confirming this trip for me but I was still always filled with uncertainty. I went off feelings more than concrete knowledge. One night at training camp they told us we had to do listening prayer. I was like crap, I don't really hear from God. I was filled with doubt and worry. I decided to give it a try anyway and really open up my mind. When I did that night all I saw was this green dinosaur. I told my teammates and we kinda joked about it. I still never gave up hope, I wanted it to mean something. I wanted it to be from God. Fast-forward and few days to Phuket. Every other day we go out to a place affectionately known as "The Land". We do manual labor for hours in the sun, so much fun! At the land there is a concrete sidewalk with decorations in it made from colored glass, etc. At the end of this sidewalk there is a GREEN DINOSAUR just like the one I'd seen back at camp. I was so excited when half my team came back and told me! Even cooler, he apparently has a whole story. He was inspired by a dinosaur named Tyrone. He's pretty cool and has even been on the world race. I think it's funny that God used something so random. My friend Shelby told me that he wanted the word "coincidence" to leave my vocabulary. I think it definitely has.
Fast-forward again to the next night. Every night half of our team goes out to the bars and the other half stays back and intercedes through prayer. This was my teams night to stay back. While praying I started to think about one of the roads, Soi Crocodile. It had really been tugging at my heart for a few days and I felt like I needed to go down there. While praying I asked God, "If this is you really wanting me to go down Soi Crocodile, I need you to show me exactly which bar". Just as a side note I had never been down Soi Crocodile at this point, I'd only seen the entrance to the road. So just like that God showed me. It was like a vision. I zoomed down the left side of the road a little over half way down and all I could see was a bright yellow light and what looked like a lemon. When it happened, I was kinda just like, ok that was crazy. So I put it to the side and didn't tell anyone till the next day.
The next night my small trio went to Bangla. It was in front of Soi Crocodile that I finally revealed to them what I had seen. We prayed about it before we went in. My reaction to all this was pretty much, "We will go in and if we don't see any lemons then we can leave". I didn't really know what to expect. So I lead the way in and I SAW THE BAR!!!! It was exactly where I'd seen in with a bright yellow sign. Inside the bar is this bright yellow light shaped like a stinkin lemon. My mouth seriously dropped open. It was one of the coolest things in my life, EVER. Needless to say, the two girls we met were awesome and even asked us to hang out the next day… AND they showed up 🙂
God is crazy awesome y'all, and He speaks to us! My faith had been blown out of the water in the 2 short weeks I've been on this trip. He is so faithful and I can't see what he has in store for us on Bangla next!
