We’ll pick up this story today at about 1pm, where Aidan and I
are walking down the street chatting. Our topic of conversation
for this brisk walk (its 42 degrees tonight! Brrrr, it’s not
supposed to be this cold here!) is how that, in G-town, there does not
seem to be much theft, especially compared to other cities. I
mentioned that I had not seen anyone trying to pick-pocket or heard
of someone getting something stolen here. Aidan agreed. Aidan
had to go to class, so he veered off down the road towards our language teacher’s
house. I reached for my wallet to get on the
bus….. It was gone!! Ironic. Ha.
I figured I had just left it at Aidan’s, so I wasn’t worried or
anything. I prayed and just gave it to God and went about my day.
I went home and finished my homework and then went to class.
Afterwards I went to Aidan’s to look. We scoured the house, to
no avail. After retracing my steps, we deduced that I had either
left it on the bus, it was stolen on the bus, or I left it at the
restaurant we had eaten at the night before. So we went down to
the Muslim noodle place, Aidan, his Asian friend John, and me.
John asked them if they had found one, but they hadn’t. So we
prayed, and I turned to John and said, well, if we find it we will
know it was God, and a miracle.
I went home and started to de-activate my two atm cards and my
credit card. Luckily I did not have much cash in my wallet (about
10 bucks American), and only 2 other somewhat valuable things, but
they were more of convenience items. I checked my bank accounts,
and everything seemed to be intact. So I decided at that point I
would get some dinner (I keep my money for the month in my room, so
I still had money accessible). As I was walking back, God reminded
me of an event a few nights previous.
I was coming home around 11pm and a girl, maybe 20, stopped me and
said her and her friend were hungry. They were standing outside of
mcdonalds, and, having missed the chance to help someone out in a
similar situation a few weeks before offered to buy her some food.
I wasn’t really thinking to clearly at this point and we went into
mcdonalds. Now, to make this clearer, I do not eat at mcdonalds
because it is too expensive. But we went in and she ordered, and
it came to 50.50 kuai (I usually eat a meal for around 10). My
entire generous and loving attitude suddenly went out the window.
As we left the girl asked me for another 50 kuai so they could get
a place to stay, but all I had was a 100 and was taken aback by the
whole encounter, so I just walked off to my room.
That night it struck me how much the amount of money impacted me,
and how my heart was obviously not in the right place. As I was
walking back from dinner, God reminded me that money comes and
goes, and it didn’t matter how much I spent because all the money I
had in my wallet was gone now. It really was a good lesson, and I
felt totally at peace about the whole situation, it was in God’s
hands.
As I got back to my apartment, I noticed I had a missed call and 2
new texts. Aidan found my wallet! Woohoo! Praise God! It’s a
miracle! And so cool how He does everything, and is continuously
taking care of us. (remember that update I wrote awhile back about
God’s provision and love ;))
There has been so much happening these days. We have another new
sister, named Apple! We had a prayer and prophesy time the other
night for our Asian friends that are Christians. It was great. We got
to speak into their lives and then they started prophesying over
each other! One girl had only been in the family for 2 weeks. It
is so cool the things that are going on. One kid, Nature, is not a
Christian and was deeply impacted by the night. He said that there must be
some greater power that made this world and is orchestrating
things, and pointed out how God had been directing him to the point
in his life he is at. I got the opportunity to sit down one on one
with a kid named Kevin and field questions and read about how Jesus
died and was raised to life. It’s such a privilege to be here 🙂
Prayer requests: Last update I mentioned very briefly about health.
Well, probably about 75 percent of the city has been or is sick in
the last few weeks, and some severe back pain has also come up.
(thankfully I have not gotten sick at all :D) So please be praying
for protection against that form of attack. Busyness is a huge
stronghold over here, especially at this time of the year with lots
of midterms and tests 1 and 2 months away. (sometimes friends will
tell us they can’t meet for a whole month or more because they have
a test coming up and need to study). We didn’t have anyone show up
to the study this week (after 9 ppl last), one person got a fever
that morning and was in the hospital. Satan definitely does not
want people coming to our study, so that is encouraging in way, at
least what we are doing is powerful. I did, like I said, get to
meet Kevin later that night. We are really seeing and praying that
God is working in our friends lives no matter how often we can meet
them or how busy we are. It’s been heavily evident.
That’s all for now 🙂
Much love,
Adriel