Thank You (an update)

Last we spoke, I was taken on an adventure in my imagination during a sweet moment with our Father.

Taiwan was a shipwreck, if you want a visual description of what the second  month on the field was for me; a beautiful disaster, something somewhat tragic but also alluring. I will continue to go back to that to see what treausures were buried in the wreckage. We can visit this more in another time, but it was worth mentioning to set the mood of the first part of February.

There was an evening my team and I set out to do a prayer walk. For us, this looked like finding a park nearby, praying for whatever came to mind, walking together and then dispersing. We covered this park in prayer for about an hour, laying grounds for future encounters. I perched myself on a bench and, running out of words for prayers decided to softly sing a worship song while taking in the moment.

The next evening, we returned to that same park and a couple of my teammates struck up a conversation with a lady watching 4 dogs. I was preoccupied with petting one – he was blind and so so sweet, could you blame me? In the background I hear 

“Allie’s From Dallas as well!”

I slowly switch my gaze from the dog to the woman and then glance down below her in my line of sight – the bench I had found myself drawn to the day before sat just beneath her.

My heart leapt: 

”is this real?” I silently wondered.

I joined the conversation: she was an American teaching English and was just submitting her resume for a new job. I could feel Holy Spirit nudging me to meet up with her again but I was still fumbling through understanding what exactly “feeling/hearing Holy Spirit“ actually meant.

We connected on Instagram and set up a dinner for the following night.

Okay let’s pause here and address questions you may have that I also had at the time:

1. (In regards to the bench) How do you know that’s not just a coincidence?

2. Prayer walking sounds like it’s just a way to seem busy, yeah?

3. ….is it real?

Press play again and let’s see if those get answered.

I grab Molly, another squadmate but from a different team, and ask her to come along with me. We meet up with the woman and her roommate and hop on the metro. Lots of blind trust, but somehow we felt safe. 

We shared a DELICIOUS meal and the conversation turned from light and frilly to a very delicate outpouring of a long year of hurt and tragedy in these two peoples lives. Death, abuse, self-sacrifice and trying moments. Some parts of my own story were twinging as I was listening to these stories.

We didn’t shy away from the hard conversations and Molly and I got to speak life into their circumstances and tell them who God says they are. During the evening, we got to see a small portion of healing in their souls that was already in the works before we met them but we know Jesus has stepped in a little extra and we just got to be the vessels. Before the night was over, we got to witness a small blessing for the woman with a family member of hers and had her express how nice it was to get out and be refreshed with new people. 

This is the biggest part of my World Race and steps into the kingdom of God – understanding these baby steps lay the foundation of truth and love that are so necessary for the gospel to really reach people. 

So what are the odds in Taipei, Taiwan I get to sing on a bench where I meet a lady from my hometown in America and then get to declare truths over her life the following evening? I’m not sure. But it built my faith in the concept that “there are no such things as coincidences“ so I’m going with, yeah, it’s really real. And prayer walks work. 

So thank you, to all who spend moments praying for me, for my team, for my squad, for the countries we visit and For financially supporting these endeavors to spread the gospel and love of God in the smallest of places. I love you all!

Stay tuned for so much more! (I still have the second half of Taiwan and then China to update you on!)