This particular Saturday in Southeast Asia last summer had God written all over it.
(Originally written in June 2015, with some minor edits)
Our day began by meeting our friend, D, at the movie theater because he wanted us to see the movie, Spy. Unfortunately, the movie was sold out when we got there. We decided to see the next soonest movie since D had to go to lecture later in the afternoon (yes, on a Saturday). The next soonest movie was San Andreas which is a movie about a giant earthquake and tsunami. I have to admit I wasn't thrilled about seeing such an intense, scary movie, but it was all part of God's plan for the day and for that I am so thankful!
After we watched the movie, we decided to get something to eat at the concessions which is more like a big cafeteria. We got our food and were looking for a place to sit but every table was full. I looked around for a few minutes and finally saw just enough open seats in the middle of a long table. We began to sit down and all of a sudden, to my right I recognize a group of Truman students! They are from this city and are just home for the summer. We were so shocked to see each other in a city of 7.5 million people! This led to several more meetings and good conversations with this group of familiar faces from my home university.
While I was talking to my Truman friends, my teammates told me that D had decided to skip his lecture to see another showing of the movie, Spy. We were so excited but made sure to tell him not to make skipping class a habit. :) We had some time before the movie started so we sat and talked. We were talking about spaghetti of all things when all of a sudden D asks us if we have ever seen a ghost. This opened up conversation to talk about God's story, our stories, and our friend's story.
After movie #2 for the day, we saw that the formerly sunny skies were now filled with a storm that looked eerily similar to the San Andreas movie. We watched the storm unfold from inside the theater with many people who were also taking shelter inside. The rain and wind were so strong and we saw signs falling off of buildings. Water was leaking through the roof and flooding in through the sliding glass doors. The rain eventually died down a little bit, but for some reason I felt that we should still wait before we attempted to head home. When we decided to finally go outside, we step out to the road and see that a giant power line is laying across the street where our bus stop was. We walked up the street to another bus stop and there was a giant tree that was laying across that street. After some walking, we found a bus stop with a bus that could take us pretty close to home. On the way home, we saw many more trees uprooted and power lines down. We are still not really sure what happened although we heard that it might have been a tornado and three people were killed.
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| Waiting out the scary storm |
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| One of many uprooted trees in the city |
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| I'm glad Ash stopped to take this awesome picture because a big metal beam fell off a building right in front of us as soon as we started walking again. |
We got back to our hotel in the evening and the electricity was out in the entire area. We walked down our alley and a single candle lit each shop that was filled with many people. We could see the light from the candle from a ways away, but when we came closer and looked into each store it was still very dark. God used this picture to remind me that we are lights in this very dark place. Our very presence here (because of the Holy Spirit living in us) disrupts the darkness. We are here, but we are only a few. There are only so many people that we can meet and talk to. The single candle in each shop does give off a lot of light on its own, but can you imagine how much light 100 candles would give off in each small but crowded shop? And how much easier it would be to move, work, and see in more light? The Lord also used this image to open my eyes to the need for more workers here and the many other hard to reach places around the world. Think of how many more people could hear the story of Christ's love for them if there were simply more people to tell them!
Luke 10:2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
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Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
