Awaken

Hey from Gainesville, GA! I’m currently in the middle of leadership training for the World Race, preparing to alumni squad lead the 2024 WR Expedition route! As a leadership team, we had the opportunity to go and volunteer at a revival night in the community last Saturday night. We showed up around 3 and were asked to go to local apartment complexes and invite people by knocking on doors and handing out flyers. So we booked it over to some apartments and started knocking! 3 doors in, my co-leaders and I met a man named Bruce. As we approached his doorstep, he pulled into the parking lot, catching our attention as he slammed the door of his truck. We turned to see Bruce slowly making his way up the steps. We greeted him as he unlocked his door to set his bag down, and he nonchalantly told us to take a seat on his porch! No questions, just a free invitation. We were kinda surprised by the offer, but we felt the Spirit nudge us to invest and lay aside our own agenda. He told us he had just left for work, but he got a text on his way saying he didn’t need to come in for his shift, so he turned around. Hot take? There’s no such thing as a coincidence. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” Romans 8:28. With excited and expectant hearts, we each sat down, internally asking the Lord for guidance and for insight. We spent the next hour and a half getting to know him, listening to his testimony and his life experiences. My heart was touched as he shared his faith in the Lord with us. Hearing the loneliness in his voice as he shared parts of his story and discerning distance in his relationship with the Father, I felt the Spirit’s comfort in deciding to just “be”. To just sit, listen, and be with him. To meet him in his loneliness as Jesus would have. To seek the Father for wisdom in our conversation as Jesus would have. To encourage him in his faith as Jesus would have. He mentioned his love for playing guitar at one point, and so we asked him if he still played. Quickly he ran inside, returning with his guitar in hand. Sitting back down, he began to play Goodness of God. Next thing ya know we’re worshipping on this man’s front porch. After a couple of songs, we realized it was time for us to head back to the revival night. Praise God, Bruce didn’t have to work second shift that evening, so he joyfully high-fived us and told us he’d meet us at the event. We reunited with him later during the service, almost as if we had known each other for longer than just the past couple hours. We spent time praying over him towards the end of the night, allowing the Lord to speak directly to his heart. We thanked God for crossing our paths and for blessing us by introducing us to Bruce. We thanked God for his constant presence, reminding Bruce that he is never alone. The Lord has always and will always be walking along side him. We prayed for new encounter, new revelation, and for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. I felt the Spirit alive within Him as we hugged goodbye. And with tears streaming down his face he thanked us for a day he’d remember forever.

ALSO, before heading back to the event after meeting Bruce, we ran into an employee from the local Family Dollar. We invited him to the revival night, but he told us he’d be unable to make it because he had to go back into work because his co-workers were unable to make their shifts. One co-worker, specifically, couldn’t come to work because her daughter had ran away from home. We decided to pray for him and for his co-worker’s daughter, asking God to bring her home safely. We parted ways with the man and returned to the event. At the end of the night during tear-down, a woman came up to us, asking if we had prayed for a man at the Park Hill apartments. We were confused because we honestly weren’t sure which apartments we had visited, but frantically, she said “The daughter came home!” Our jaws DROPPED as she explained… A shuttle was sent to pick people up for the event at the apartment complexes, and apparently the man we had prayed for told the shuttle driver the Lord answered our prayer!! After we left, he immediately received a call that his co-worker’s daughter returned home. PRAISE GOD!