WHAT A DAY! Sunday was just so amazing I can’t help but just write all about it. But, for this specific blog I want to focus on one moment. Sunday afternoon after church and lunch I split off with Carli, Elle, Wesley, and Marian for ministry. We spent some time giving out our ministry cards. The cards we pass out invite people to join our giveaway. First and second place win lego sets and third place wins an essentials hoodie. The idea is to get people to follow our instagram feed to join the giveaway. By following our ministry on instagram, videos from our ministry get pushed onto people’s fyp. Previous giveaway winners have also turned to Christ after winning due to the relationships they make with the coffee shop owners when they come to claim their giveaway prize. Giving out giveaway cards also helps to break the ice with people on the street and start a conversation with them instead of just randomly walking up to them. After a few minutes of passing out cards Carli and Elle went into a cafe and then Wesley, Marian and I kept passing out cards on the street. After passing out cards with Wesley and Marian for about an hour I joined Carli and Elle in the cafe. Carli and Elle had been sitting at the coffee bar talking to the employee for about an hour. I had missed the beginning of their conversation, so let me fill you in the best I can from what I know. Carli and Elle began talking with Amelia who was having a slow day at work in the cafe (Amelia is not her real name, but we will just call her this for privacy reasons in the story). Amelia shared that she was a makeup artist and did a lot of makeup for baptisms. Elle then asked if baptisms were common and lots of people were religious. Amelia explained that they were very common, however she was not religious because she heavily relies on physical evidence in order to believe something. Elle then shared a little bit about how she knows God is real because she has had experience with the Holy Spirit filling her and giving her gifts. Their conversation then just shifted back into casual everyday questions. After about 45 minutes of talking to her I joined them in the cafe a little before 3 o’clock. Mackenzie and Hahna also ended up in the same cafe with us and got their own table behind us. Amelia then mentioned how as soon as she got off work she was going to go get lunch with her friend. It was almost 3:30. I asked her if that was a regular time to eat lunch because a 3:45 lunch sounded super late to me. She shared with Elle, Carli and I that in Greece 2 o’clock is a common lunch time and 8 o’clock was common for dinner, so she was eating a late lunch. We then shared with her that it's super common in the states to eat lunch around 12 and dinner around 6. This shocked her so she asked us what time we normally eat breakfast if we eat lunch so early. We explained that a lot of people skip breakfast or just eat something small. Amelia responded “oh like fasting?” Elle used this as an amazing segue to talk about how one time she fasted because the Lord told her to and in return God blessed her with a few spiritual gifts and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. I used this to piggy back off and share how sometimes it's hard to hear God directly. I told her a story about how one time I prayed and asked God to show me he loved me and then later that day someone prayed over me telling me that God loves me so much. Amelia responded with something along the lines of “yeah maybe he was giving you guys a sign.” Elle asked her if she thought us talking to her was a sign and she said “maybe I’ll have to see what happens in my life after this”. We then prayed over her and went to head out. On the way out I just felt God tugging on my heart telling me to turn back around and give her my bible. So I turned back around and asked her if she had a bible and she said her boyfriend might but she did not. So I gave her mine. I was excited because while she said she felt bad taking it from me she seemed very accepting and willing to take it.

TWO FUN FACTS about this interaction that I thought were so totally woven together by God. NUMBER ONE: at training camp we all received scrapbook pages that were made by the leaders. Mine didn’t particularly speak to me in any way but I thought it was super cute so I stuck it in my bible. When I gave the cafe employee my bible I was actually going to pull the scrapbook piece out, because it was mine. But when I flipped to the page of the scrapbook piece I realized it said “Look up He’s there”, so I decided to leave it inside. It led me to believe that the scrapbook page was never for me, but hopefully it is a sign for her. NUMBER TWO: Last September I accidentally got a little Amazon crazy and bought 3 bibles. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to paint my own, if I wanted a hard cover, or if I wanted a leather bible. I figured whichever one I decided I could just return the other two. Well turns out my family is not very good at Amazon returns, so after I decided to paint my bible the other two just sat in my room. I figured that the time would come when I would meet someone that was a new believer and I could give them one of my extra bibles. That time never ended up coming and they just sat on my bedroom shelf. When it was time to leave for the World Race I didn’t want to bring my painted bible because it was already starting to fall apart and I didn’t want it to get more ruined. So, I grabbed one of the bibles on my shelf. The bibles I intended to give away. The bible I ended up being called to give away on Sunday. Giving away my bible was such a full circle God moment for me. First off, it taught me to trust God’s timing. It has been a year since I got my giveaway bibles and finally this weekend I was able to fulfill their purpose that God so clearly crafted. It also showed me how to hear God’s voice and obey when he is speaking to me. I am so blessed that God used me as a vessel for this purpose and I’m happy I got to be a part of seed planting in this girl’s life. Praise God. Please be praying for the girl who works at that small cafe and that God can continue to reveal himself to her and work in her life!