ATL: Ask the Lord is where we walk the streets praying for people, their business, families, kids etc. We invite God and the Holy spirit to intervene and ask for discernment.
The first day doing ATL, I was kinda nervous but a nervousness of I know God is going to work in me and others. So the team walked around praying throughout the streets, and as one of my teammates and I were walking around, we said in Spanish hello and good morning to two men sitting on the side of the road. He said good morning in English and that made me stop and talk to them knowing I could talk to them in English. We exchanged names and one of the men asked if we are tourists and I said kinda; that we are missionaries. He asked if we know of Christ or another God and that both of them are familiar with Christ. I asked if I couled pray over them and the man that spoke some English responded in Spanish and from what we could understand was that he wasn’t wanting prayer because at the moment he was drinking beer and didn’t think he couple receive prayer because he drank. He said we couple pray for his brother sitting next to him, also drinking. So I sat down on the street and prayed for them and in the prayer I said that it doesn’t matter what we do (drinking alcohol) that God still loves us. The man that spoke some English translated some of what I was saying. After I prayed, we said mucho gusto which means nice to meet you and I continued to say that I hope to see them again so I can share more about God next time.
Then we started working in the park pulling weeds and kids started to help us. It was the sweetest thing to see these kiddos picking weeds and moving piles of weeds with shovels, watching and doing what we do to clean up the park. Some of us stopped to toss water balloons around that some of the kids brought our from their house and we started to build friendships with these kids. It was a sweet day filled with God’s presence all around.
Another testimony
We have been praying at this particular school in the community and when we went back to the school, I was praying I felt God say to go up to a staff member and share how I’ve been praying for protection and good health over the staff and school. At the school, the teachers are there, but the students are learning from home. So I mustard up the courage to walk over and spotted a women coming out of the school. I asked her if she spoke English and she didn’t, so I began to tell her my name, that I’m a missionary in Spanish. I shared in Spanish that I prayed for over the staff and school. After I said this, she looked a little confused. From her body language, she didn’t understand what a missionary is. We ended this interaction by saying goodbye and nice to meet you. After this interaction, some people would say this was a failure. That I wasn’t able to communicate better or pronounce words better for her to understand me. But what really matters is not what it looks like from my point of view, but God’s view. God sees my obedience in walking over and telling a staff member what I was praying about. God isn’t worried that I butchered Spanish. In any situatio, God will fill in the gaps of what He wants to communicate to the people I interact with.
After this, one of my teammates and I walked up the street and saw the same kids we worked with at the park come running down the street greeting us with hugs. It was the sweetest thing ever. As they went back to where they all ran from, my teammate and I walked to a store where we went to before. The name of the store had God in it, I assume that they must have heard about God. So I want to keep coming to this store and pray blessing over them. That they will keep searching the Lord each day and hoping I will meet them and share a common interest of our amazing Savior. Soon I started walking around the town by myself, stopping and praying for people’s businesses and that God’s presence would be known in this town. I felt a peace to walk around alone and have small interactions with people.
God is working here, in my heart and the hearts of others in this community.
