We have a God who knows no
boundaries. Sometimes, we try and box Him in. Sometimes, we try and tell Him
what He can and cannot do. Sometimes we just don’t have the faith to let go of
our little box where we try to put God. This being said, let me say it again-
we have a God who knows no boundaries. We simply cannot box Him in, because He
works in beautiful, incredible, intricate ways that blows our weak temporal
perspective away.
The Luke 10 challenge is based off
of Luke 10, where Jesus sends out his disciples to cities to heal, cast out
demons, and trust for a person of peace who will provide them with food and a
place to stay. For us, this looks like going into a city and trusting that
Jesus will provide us with people to pray for and share the Gospel with, and
hoping that there will be a person or family that takes us in for the night.
Just one day after arriving in Germany, we headed off for our Luke 10 trip. Our Luke 10 experience began with a
bus ride to a neighboring city. We were very driven by a desire to find a
refugee camp and to engage with them. We were trusting that God would provide
us with people that we could have a conversation and share His love with.
Maybe, we would even see Him heal people. We were extremely confident because
we knew that Jesus would take care of us, protect us, and guide us, and also
because we knew that we had a team of people interceding for us and asking God
for prophetic insight into what He wanted to do. God had also given my team a
verse. It was from Isaiah 31, and it said “Woe to those who go down to Egypt
for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in
horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of
Israel or consult the Lord!” Basically, God was telling us to ask Him for help
before we came up with our own plan. This was crucial as we went forward.
Towards the end of the ride, we received a
text from our prayer team. They told us that God had given them a picture of a
middle-aged man holding water. They also had received the name “Johann.” We got
off the bus, and said, “Okay God, which way do we go?” The Lord told us to go
left, and so we went left. Sure enough, there was a large mural on the wall
with the hands of a middle-aged man, holding water! Wow, God was totally
confirming that as long as we trust Him and ask Him what to do, He will show up.
Then we said, “Okay, Lord, which way to the refugees?” A few of us both felt
like God was saying to go down some stairs. We walked that direction, going
where we felt that God wanted us to go, until we came to a large staircase.
Several people were coming down from it, so we went up. Maybe we’d find someone
who knew about the refugees. At the top was this platform that overlooked the
city. As Bree, John, and Andi went to ask a taxi driver and a woman about where
we could find the refugees, I walked to the end of the platform. The view was
beautiful. In the distance were hills, covered in dense, dark green trees.
Sprawled between the hills and me was the city, with its buildings looking like
something out of a European movie, with trees sprinkled in between. To my right
was a church, with its steeples rising above any other tree and building near
me. Despite the beauty of this, there was heaviness and a weight. I felt that
there was a spiritual battle to be fought, and chains to be broken off. I
walked over to tell the team this, but before I could, Bree pulled out her
phone and read a text that she had just gotten from the prayer team. “We see an
empty platform. We feel like there is a spirit of false identity that needs to be
broken off.” Alright, God. We immediately prayed.
As we prayed, we saw a crowd of
young guys below us. John and I went to talk to them, as they looked like they
could be middle-eastern. It turned out that they were, in fact, Palestinians
from Syria. We talked to them a bit and heard some of their story. They were
neighbors back in Syria, and were reunited in Germany. The one who we mostly
spoke to, as he had the best English, told us that he had only recently
arrived. He told us about how he had survived two explosions and a rocket back
in Syria, and in order to leave the country, he three times had to bribe the
border patrol. Never in my life have I seen such a clear pain as I looked
someone in the eye. So much brokenness. So much hurt. We asked to pray for him,
and he agreed. He asked also that we would pray for his family still in the
Middle East, that they would be reunited with him in Germany soon. We then
engaged in a very long conversation about religion. He seemed to perk up when
the conversation turned this way, and he invited us to sit down. We shared the
Gospel and discussed differences between Islam and Christianity. As the
conversation winded down, Bree received another text from our prayer team. They
said that God gave them a word about someone who needed healing from head pain.
Right after this, the two men said that they had something else that they
wanted us to pray for- one of their friends recently was near an explosion, and
shrapnel got in in his left eye and he needed surgery. Unfortunately, they had
to leave right then, but we immediately prayed for their friend, fully
believing that God will heal him.
As John and I prayed, a
middle-school girl came and talked to Andi and Bree. She shared a nightmare
that she had recently had, and Andi was able to interpret the dream and tell
her about it, and pray with her. God was really moving in this city.
At this point, we decided to head
off again and find the refugees. The woman we had spoken with had suggested
asking the church, so we walked over. As John and Andi went inside to ask, Bree
and I stayed outside to pray. As we prayed, we received a couple of texts from
our prayer team: they had been given a picture of a man, wearing a black shirt
with white writing and a graphic on it, and we needed to ask him for
directions. They had also been given a word about somebody having a
pain/numbness in their right foot. At this point, John and Andi came back out
and John asked another man in the courtyard if he knew where we could find the
refugees. He directed us to a school up the hill.
We trekked up this hill, asking
around for directions to make sure that we were going the right direction, and
finally arrived at this school. Andi and Bree were both very thirsty at this
point. Unfortunately, the school no longer housed refugees. We could easily
have become very discouraged, but God was quick to make sure that we wouldn’t
be. He told us to ask these three guys unloading their car if we could help
them, and so we did. They then responded by giving us free drinks. Look at God!
Now, we were hungry. There were several food options nearby, so we asked, “God,
where do you want us to go?”
Suddenly, a man walks by. He had a
black shirt on, with white writing, and a graphic. I bolted after him. I
crossed the street and followed him down the street til I caught him. “Excuse
me!” I asked. “Do you speak English?” He did, in fact, speak English! I had
absolutely no idea what to say from there, but God prompted me to ask where we
could find a “cheap dinner.” He gave me some directions, and I thanked him.
Before we parted ways, I asked if I could pray for him. He was quite surprised,
and he laughed a little bit and said to pray for his health. I asked if I could
pray for him right then, but he chuckled and walked away. I went back to the
team and told them that we had to pray for this guy’s health. As we began
praying, someone saw him coming back on the other side of the street, favoring
his right foot. We had been given the word by the prayer team before about pain
in someone’s right foot, so we knew we had to pray for this guy. He went into a
building, and so we said “God, if you send him back out, we will pray for
healing for his right foot!” We slowly walked by the building, and he came
bolting back out. We were pumped, and thought that we would be praying for this
guy’s foot right then and there, but before we could get a sentence out he
asked, “Do you guys like Barbeque??” We said yes, and he invited us into his
home. As we walked to his door, there was the name “Johanna” written on the
wall. Alright, God, we see you. We entered, and the man’s girlfriend was
waiting there to greet us, and they took us outside to a table.
We had an incredible evening with
the two of them. They were both in their upper-40s, and the man had just barely
a year ago moved to the city to be closer to his girlfriend. They served us a
meal of salad, sausage, potatoes, and when we thought the meal was over, plenty
of pork. They defied the stereotype that we had heard about Germans not being
very good at spontaneous hospitality. Towards the end of the meal, he brought
up God and religion. He asked why on earth we would want to pray for him. We
told him the crazy story of how God was telling our friends these things that
we were going to see, and how they were texting us as we went out. He was in
utter disbelief, and had to see the texts for himself. After he saw the proof,
he didn’t know what to think. It was a beautiful avenue for us to share the
Gospel, and we were able to articulate it in a couple of ways. The next few
hours were spent discussing Christianity and addressing any questions that they
had. Then, we had the chance to pray for him. Turns out, the issue with his
right foot is actually his right knee. He blew it out several years ago, and
things grind and click in painful ways that they aren’t supposed to. We prayed
for healing, and fully believe that God healed his knee. He didn’t know right
then, since it wasn’t in pain, but we believe that in the time since he has
realized that his knee is completely better and completely healed.
Following prayer, he kept on
repeating how amazed and “impressed” he was by the way that things had worked
out that day. Everything from the shirt that he wore to the prayer to the
texts. He said several times that even if his knee is not healed, he will still
be open to God because of what he had seen. He was so open, in fact, that he
said to us “If you want, I really would like for you to stay in my home
tonight.” We told him that we would, and he was extremely happy. We spent the
rest of the night talking, and hearing his story, hearing his girlfriend’s
story, and at one point we tried to slide the Bible into the conversation. He
was open, but unfortunately his girlfriend was uncomfortable with it, so we
didn’t have the chance right then.
We ended the night sipping coffee
and tea by candlelight, and finally ended up going to bed around 11 pm. Around
7, we got up, enjoyed a cup of coffee, and we went on our way as they began
their days. What an incredible experience we had with these people. He gave us
his phone number, so we will be able to continue our relationship with him. It
is our prayer that this man will come to know Jesus. He is close, and has even
said himself that he is open, so now we are trusting that the Holy Spirit will
be doing a work on his heart.
20 hours after we had left for this
Luke 10 trip, we finally got back to our apartment. Exhausted, but in awe of
what God had done and what God is doing.
We have a God who knows no
boundaries.
