Moving forward....

We continue to move forward with these girls in fear and trembling. I laugh, as I thought about the other night. There I was....at 10 pm at night--walking down the streets in CM--without my husband, trying to engage people. For those of you who haven't been around me in a long while, I know it's hard for you to imagine that after 15 years of living in Asia and not being able to communicate like I would like with those around me, I have become an introvert. Not only am I an introvert, but I am a Morning introvert--which basically means I get up early and am pretty much down for the count by 8:30. (that means pretty useless) I had a long day of basketball so we were unable to go out until 8pm. The week was full so we decided we couldn't wait for time on the schedule we were just going to have to do it and so 8pm was the time. We needed to follow up with the girls we had taken the gift bags to.
Six of us went out this time. We spent time before praying that God would lead us to ONE person. This time we took small cards inviting the girls to Coffee and Conversation at a nearby hotel on Sat. afternoon. I have to say when we planned on Coffee and Conversation on Sat. our thoughts were one or two people might come. We decided on the hotel because it was easy. We knew the girls would know it and honestly, I didn’t have time to go down there and scope around for another place. We decided on 3pm because I may have another child playing in a basketball tournament until later in the day—probably not—but may.
Three of us stood around the corner praying while three of us went back to the first bar. (never thought I would say that in a post, did you?) We recognized some of the girls as we talked to them. While we were talking, one girl was coming out with someone and tried to come and talk to us. She was one of the ones we had met with before. It was encouraging to us that she wanted to talk to us again. One of the other girls seemed very open and gave us her name and seemed to want to engage us more. We hope she will come on Sat.
We then went back to join our Pray-ers and regrouped and prayed some more. Then we walked down the street, mapping out the place and looking for others. In an unexpected turn of events we were able to invite a larger group who seemed surprised that we would offer this to them. She went inside and asked permission to come and told us they all would be coming.
We also met a lady boy on the street and were able to pray with him for his new business. It was an interesting turn of events when he told us he is a Christian—or was one in university. We need prayers regarding whether to follow up there or not. He gave us his telephone number.
So, here we are….getting ready for Sat. We are planning to meet in the hotel coffee shop because that was the original plan. We will be thrilled to have one show up—remember we prayed for ONE. :> (I know, O me of little faith!) We had to pull some others in to help us since only two of us can be there on Sat. just in case we have more than that. We have a tentative plan but will adjust as needed. We are focusing on conversation…hoping to make it more like an English club than an actual class. Most of these girls have had some English instruction.
One of the other things I keep asking God about is that we are all mom’s-- with other jobs with very little time-- to put into this kind of ministry. We can’t think about it, plan and focus on it all day because we don’t have time to do this. We send up SOS prayers, spend hrs in the middle of the night praying, pray before, during and afterwards and just ask God to move. Not to mention the fact that none of us has studied the language full time or really have very good language. Several of us can spit out words and phrases and one of us can carry on a decent basic conversation. What are we doing? Right now, we are just being obedient, moving forward one step at a time. We know he’s told us to move forward so we are just doing the next thing that we know to do.
Please pray for us on Sat. Pray for the girl(s) who are coming and pray for wisdom and direction for how to share with them. Pray that God communicates clearly through us. Pray that God will already be stirring their hearts and drawing them to him. And, then pray that God will make it clear the next step forward.