T R Y

In Thailand, we had all squad month. Our six teams were all together, and it was the most amazing month. Though we all stayed at the same place, we were all with different ministries.

Each team did get to go do bar ministry, in the “RLD” behind our hostel. One night, two teams went out and when they got back, we debriefed what their experience was. One squadmate met a girl who he said just didn’t seem like she belonged. He said she just looked out of place. He asked her what her passions and dreams were. “Work,” was her response. He said he couldn’t believe that was all she knew, that she had no dreams. As he continued talking, my heart sank for this girl.

Almost instantly, the Lord told me she was an artist. As I prayed into that and asked God why He told me that over the next 24 hours or so, He told me I needed to trust Him, and that I needed to give her my sketchpad and my watercolor set I’d brought with me.

I’ll be honest, a part of me wanted to hold onto those watercolors. I’d gotten them specifically for the Race, and it was only month two. Still, I knew it was what I was being asked to do, and my thoughts and prayers went on…”What if I obey what I hear, and God brings out her art gifting, and so many other things follow?”

So a few nights later, I went out to give them to her.

I prayed while I walked there with my squadmate who had met her. I had such hope. I knew that this was a turning point for her life.

We got there. And the girl wasn’t there. My heart broke. I wanted to meet her and see her, to tell her so many things. We left the paints and sketchbook with a guy who worked at the same bar. I’d written her a letter of encouragement and put it in the sketchbook before we left, at the time thinking it was so that she’d open it later, after I got to talk to her. I now know that was God telling me to write her that letter, because I wouldn’t get to have a conversation that night. I heard and obeyed, and I couldn’t do anything else. So I prayed. And I’m still praying for this girl who I never met, but was asked to give my paints and sketchbook to.

A lot of times, when things get hard for whatever reason, we think, “All we can do is pray.”

WHY IS PRAYER OUR LAST RESORT?! Prayer is our communication with our Creator, and so often we are passive about it, or we think it doesn’t make an impact. Prayer. Changes. Every. Thing.

When we got back to the hostel that night, I’m not sure I’ve ever prayed so hard for someone’s heart to change. She said she had no dreams, no passions. Since that night, I’ve prayed for this girl. I want her to do one thing: Try having dreams. I want her to paint, to create, to have her heart woken up to all that God has in store for her. I want her to know that she was created by the Creator.

I’m choosing to believe that God opened a door for her that night. I believe that God used/is using a letter, a set of watercolors, and a sketchbook to change a heart and a life for eternity. If me giving away my paints and paper can make that kind of change, I only wish I’d brought more. I’d give those paints away a thousand times over if I knew it meant a life saved from Hell and forever with Jesus.

I never met this girl, but I do believe that Christ captured her heart, and I do believe I’ll meet her one day in Heaven. I look forward to some day hearing the rest of her story, and collaborating on paintings of sunrises and sunsets with her and our Creator.

We won’t always see the final work on this side of eternity. But we can let God use our life as a paintbrush to make a few strokes on someone else’s canvas to see the whole picture later.

“And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true:‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”–John 4:36-38