Posted in General Articles by Silas Watkins on 8/21/2007
It's amazing how good God really is. I know that it is so easy to say that God is in control of everything but it is another thing to truly believe it with your heart. Here is one story about how God is using this race to help me to truly learn that I have to walk by faith.
We have been staying in a little town in
Botswana called Maun. It is a very touristy city that has a lot of people fly in and out of it, because it is close to the delta and all the good safaris. We were having a team day and the girls and I decided to have lunch, look around the city, and go to a local American restaurant and have some dessert. Lunch was great, but if you have ever been on a long mission trip you know that it's all about the dessert.
After the apple crumble I knew it was time for shopping with the girls.
Like it usually does, shopping really wore me out.
So I told the rest of my team that I was going to leave a little early to go home and take a nap.
Seeing as I don't have a car, I could not just go home, I had to catch a ride on a Combey or take a taxi.
What I didn't know was that I was really close to the place where everyone is picked up and dropped off so catching a ride was impossible.
EVERYTHING WAS FULL!
So I started walking.
I tried to flag down everything that drove by, public transport or not.
I got lucky after I had been walking for about 20 minutes; someone said they would take me 2 KM up the road.
I was excited because I thought that I would almost be home.
Boy was I wrong.
So he gave me the ride and dropped me off, and I still had a very long haul in front of me.
So I started walking.
I walked about 1 more KM and I noticed that it seemed like I had a new friend next to me.
(One thing that I am learning on this race is that our God puts people in your path, so speak up!)
So I said hello.
He told me his name was Elvis.
The King?
No not quite, but a great walking partner.
We talked about Botswana, soccer and our Faith.
He told me that he was heading to a hotel about 2 KM away to watch a soccer game and wanted to see if I wanted to come.
So we started walking.
It's amazing how God can use your childhood sport as a bridge to talk about your faith.
He told about his favorite team, I asked if he knew Jesus.
He said he was a goalkeeper; I wanted to know if we went to church.
By the time we made it to the hotel I felt like we were pretty good friends.
We walked into the hotel, ordered a Coke and sat down.
Elvis had bad news though; the game was not on because the hotels satellite was broken.
So we finished our Coke, exchanged numbers, and I invited him to church on Sunday.
I had found out earlier that he didn't have a lot of friends in town or a local church.
So once again I started walking.
I was almost home by now.
I could see the sign for the road we were staying on off in the far distance.
So I figured why not just try to catch a ride for the rest of the way home.
WHAT LUCK!
I waved down the first car that passed me.
We made small talk and I asked her how far away we were from town.
She told me about 8 KM 4.5-5 miles.
I thanked her and went back home to the rest of my team who had been home for about an hour waiting for me.
So I started walking, by faith. That means lifting those who God puts in my heart, loved ones, old and new friends, up in prayer.
Praying that my friends will truly know the God that I serve, and praying that Elvis would come to church on Sunday.
Praying that blind eyes will finally see the light.
It's amazing the God that we have.
When you pray for the blind, they see.
Elvis came to church!
LADIES AND GENTELMEN ELVIS HAS NOT LEFT THE BUILDING!
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