Month 11. Miracles.

Hello all,

Guess what,

I’m home.

Well okay, not home home.

I’m in a Holiday Inn in Fort Lauderdale. My squad and I got in at 5 am yesterday morning, and a few of us planned to stay in Florida together for a couple of days to experience culture shock together and wrap our heads around being back. (Instead of going straight from being in Ecuador with 33 people to waking up alone in your own room in your own bed not even sure whether or not all of that just happened.)

Obviously, the past few weeks have been crazy busy, but I wanted to catch you up a little on my month in Peru and some of my thoughts in coming home.

This year I have learned so much. I have learned so much about God, the world, other people, my faith, and myself. It’s been incredible to see the Lord working in so many different ways in places all over the world.

There was a moment, about 4 months ago, when I realized that we were more than half way through our race. After that realization, I started praying for more. I started praying that we would see the Lord show up in more ways, that we would have more stories, more encounters, and more miracles from the last few months of the race than the rest of the race combined.

When I prayed that prayer I had no idea what all of that was going to look like, but as I look back I can see the many ways the Lord answered that prayer for me. From Peru and Bolivia alone (and even Ecuador), I have seen God show up in more ways and have more stories than I do from the rest of the race combined. God is so good and it’s been amazing to watch these 11 months crescendo all the way up to final debrief.

This brings me to my biggest takeaway from Month 11. Sometimes, when we have seen the Lord show up, and seen him provide in big ways, sometimes we can fall into the mentality that we have received our fair share of God’s wonders (as if there’s a limit to what God’s willing to do for you in your lifetime). This mentality is so human of us. We operate from a familiarity with limits. Yes it’s great to ask a friend a favor, but make sure not to cross the social line of asking for one thing too many.

Well guess what? God is DELIGHTED when we ask for more of him. There is no limit to God’s love, there is no limit to the wonders and miracles he will show you if you just ask him.

In answering my prayer and giving me so many stories from the past two months, the Lord has been teaching me and reminding me to keep asking for more. He has been reminding me not to settle for having gone on this one grand kingdom adventure and having these stories from my 2019 World Race. He has been encouraging me to keep expecting him to show up in my life, to keep fully depending on him (even if I’m not as often in situations where my team and I are in an airport or bus station with no idea where we will be sleeping that night).

One of my teammates and I were talking about how we had seen so many more miraculous healings in Africa than in any other place. We were wondering aloud why this might be, and she pointed out that in Africa, people weren’t afraid to ask for it.

A phrase that keeps coming to mind is “you have not because you ask not.”

Yes, we saw way more healings in Africa, but that’s because people kept asking us to pray for healings- with the faith that they would see it happen.

When we were in Peru, in the sleepy little beach town of Huanchaco, we met a group of very sweet retirees from Canada. The town was small enough that we ran into them almost every day, and we would often go get lunch or dinner (or dessert) together. One night one of the men was having particularly bad pain in his shoulder (though he said it had been hurting him for quite some time). Our Canadian friends were Christians, some with a lot of experience in missions, so when we asked Mike if we could pray for his shoulder he responded with enthusiasm.

As soon as we finished praying he said it already felt much better, and the next day he even moved his wrist watch back onto his left wrist. He said previously it had hurt so bad that it felt like a bullet wound in his shoulder, and even the weight of his watch had been too painful. It was so remarkable and encouraging to see this physical indicator of the miraculous healing that God had done.

The common denominator in the healings we saw in Africa and now Peru, was faith. Faith, and the willingness to ask.

When I head home tomorrow and get back into the swing of life in the States, I will be fixing my eyes on the Lord and continuing to approach life with the expectancy that God will continue showing up. I would like to give you the encouragement that you don’t need to go to Africa to see miracles. Just pray. Ask the Lord to increase your faith, ask for opportunities to see his kingdom on earth. Ask for more of Him. I know I will be.

Much Love,

See you all very soon.

-Hattie