Hey everyone!
I hope you all are doing good. Looks like I’m switching to monthly blogs! Haha! So much has happened this month. I’m still in Panama, but I’ve switched locations for ministry. I was living in a small, country town outside of Boquete, Panama. Now I’m on the other side of the country in a small town called Bocas del Toro. This place is wild, but that’s for another blog (hopefully soon!). A story that had a huge impact on me that I want to write about happened back in Boquete a few weeks ago.
It was our team’s last day of ministry in Boquete area. We decided that for our last day, we would go to the main town and do some prayer walking and evangelism. I’ll be 100% honest: I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go back to the greenhouse and farm we had been working on for the last three weeks. On the way to the town, the conversation of spiritual warfare came up. It got me so excited. I was hearing stories and testimonies of how the Lord came through in deliverance for people in huge ways. I sat there thinking, “I want to do something like that!” I wanted to pray for someone and see the Lord work so heavily in their life that they have a complete unrecognizable transformation.
Well after some troubles getting to town (the car dying AND getting pulled over by police), we finally got out of the car and into the town square. I was in the last group to go out, so other groups from our squad were able to get there a few hours before us. We were told we had an hour before we needed to leave. That felt like such a short amount of time to do real work. I was wrong.
All I brought with me was a mask and my Bible. Me and three other people start walking around the center square. After about 5 minutes, the Lord told me what we were to do there. We were supposed to march. Of course, as any kid who grew up in Sunday school is supposed to, this took me back to Joshua 6- the Israelites march around Jericho. I told my team about the idea, and they were all for it. I opened up my Bible and started reading out loud the whole story. We decided we would march around the center seven times, and each time intercede for a different topic the Spirit led us to. We prayed for topics like mental health, hopelessness, lust, and poverty for all the people of the town. As we walked around for the third and fourth times, you could see some people starting to look at us confused. We also started to see people in the squad, and they started joining us in our walk. As our group got bigger, the Lord was speaking more and more to us. By the last lap, I was filled up and fired up.
So many things happened after that last lap. We got to the end and gave a shout of victory. The Lord has already won the battle. Then we all spread out. We started talking to different groups of people that were walking by or watching us. Jesus has already won it on the cross, now we got to be those messengers of light. With confidence in who the Lord is, we could boldly proclaim who He is and what He can do.
I kept coming back in my head to Isaiah 40:9- Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
Without fear, we can boldly proclaim His name. You have this same ability no matter where you go. We can tell people what God can do for them. How He will change your life and bring joy. What are situations you’ve had the chance to tell people who He is, but haven’t had the boldness to say something? Have you asked the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to share? Let the words of Isaiah give you the confidence to go and do what He’s called us to do.
There’s so much more to this story and this day that are mind blowing to me. So much so that it could barely fit in a 20 minute voice message where I was talking rapid speed. Reach out to me if you’d like to hear more stories about what He’s doing. A fare warning- I get WiFi about once a week since being in the jungle here, so don’t expect a quick response. Can’t wait to be back to St. Louis in just over a month!!! Time is flying! Peace and blessings!!
