If you know anything about me, you know I'm not too big on going outside my comfort zone. So naturally, the other night God basically shoved me out of what was comfortable and into one of the coolest experiences of my life.
It was Thursday night and we were coming to an end as my team headed into our last bar for the night. We sat down and my teammates started talking to a bar girl right away. I was off to the side just looking around the bar when my eyes landed on a middle age white man sitting alone at the bar. Between looking at the golf on the TV and a bar girl, most of his attention was fixed on the bottom of each glass he had in front of him. Right away I felt a pang in my gut. I was like, "There is no way I'm going over there, I'll look stupid. God don't you dare make me go over there. I'll look like I'm hitting on him". Basically lesson learned, don't dare God. I then stood up and handed my purse to my teammate Sarah as I let her know what I was about to do.
I approached the man and asked if I could sit next to him. As I sat down my teammate Anna later noted that his demeanor completely changed. He went from slouching and staring at his glass to sitting upright and alert. We exchanged names and where we were from. His name was Tom*, he was in his 50's and from England. He also has four sons ranging from 19-32. We start this whole conversation about Thailand, Europe, and America. Turns out he really loves history. I got to talk to him about the civil war, all knowledge that I never knew I had- the Holy Spirit was working like crazy. I don't remember most of the conversation but there are major parts of it that I'll never forget. I told him what we were doing in the bars and that we want to tell the girls about Christ. He told me right away that he didn't believe. He told me, "If I was to believe that something was truly out there then I couldn't explain why the world is bad. Also, if Christ is so real then why hasn't He come back already"? All of his questions were ones that I'd asked myself and friends not too long ago. I got to tell Him that Christ is waiting for each one of His sons and daughters to hear the word so they have a chance to love Him. I told him about the Muslims that are having visions of Christ. Tom had never heard about any of this before! He asked my why I believed. I told him that I was once like these girls, I was stuck in darkness that I didn't think I had a choice to get out of. I told him that I had been hurt, abused, depressed, and that God freed me from all of this and gave me eternal life and joy! (Just a side note, everything that came out of my mouth I immediately thought I was crazy but I seriously couldn't stop. I've never spoken with so much conviction in my entire life.) I was able to tell Tom that God loved Him and wants a relationship with Him. He scoffed at me and said no way, but I just stressed it again that God loves Him so much! After all this insanity I bid Tom farewell and that hopefully we'd see each other again because he'd be in Patong another week.
When I walked out of the bar and into the street I started crying my eyes out, only to be followed by laughter, and then more crying. I got to tell my team everything that had happened, it was amazing. When we got back to SHE, someone had received a word from the Lord for me…
"Torie, God's preparing you and opening you up for a time such as this."
Seriously?! God is moving in mighty ways!!
