Divine Encounter

This past Tuesday Steve H, Justin and I went treasure hunting. We started at the mall and were just hanging around a bit at the entrance, waiting to see if the Lord pointed anyone out to us. During our brief conversation, we discussed how it might be easier to approach people who had obvious issues: sporting a broken arm or a crutch, for instance. Well, as soon as we started walking I spotted a guy with his arm in a sling. It's funny what the Lord will give you when you ask him... :) So we awkwardly interrupted the guy and his friends, got the story of what had happened (some sort of nasty infection that needed to be drained...) and asked if we could pray for him. He was very open and it was really cool to minister healing, encouragement and blessing to him. We walked for a bit longer and were also able to encourage/bless a man and his two kids.

Later on we ended up at Target. We walked around for awhile and were ready to call it a night when we walked by an aisle where a woman in a wheelchair and her husband were shopping. We did the classic creepy hesitation before continuing on past the aisle. After a brief discussion we knew we had to go back, so Justin boldly started up a conversation about baseball (the husband, Dirk, was wearing a Red Sox jacket) and Steve and I awkwardly hung about until Justin got to asking the woman, Tami, why she was in a wheelchair. She told us she had had Lyme disease for about 12 years and the symptoms had forced her into the wheelchair. Once she said this we knew it was a God-encounter because of Maggie getting healed of Lyme disease at our church last year. Tami was amazed at the testimony and it turned out that she was a believer too, and both she and Dirk were very strong in their faith. Ultimately we had a great conversation talking about the goodness of God and we were able to really encourage them. We also got to pray with them and it definitely ministered to everyone present.

It was so cool to see what happened when we really stepped out (wheelchairs can be intimidating for some reason...) and how God can use us to bless others in the most seemingly awkward situations. It was just further proof that stepping out to find out what God has in store is totally worth the risk of looking and sounding like crazy people. Our encounter with Tami and Dirk was an amazing divine-appointment, a total set-up for them to experience the Lord's incredible love and to bless us with being able to demonstrate it.

That's what treasure hunting and outreach is all about, anyways. The symptoms may not have left Tami when we prayed, but I'm not going to underestimate what God did and is continuing to do in that situation, just because I may not be able to see it all right out on the surface. The Lord is exceedingly good and I am now even more encouraged to step out in potentially 'awkward' circumstances : )


Kalin