Treasure Hunting

March 7th 2012

Wednesday

Yesterday Missionary Paul Dematatis came to bible study to share his testimony about his missions trip to Nepal, India, and Bhutan.

We asked him questions afterwards and Scott/World asked him to give us some advice. Paul told us that we should share our faith.

That really convicted me because in Korea I used to go on treasure hunts and at UMBC I haven't done it at all (besides one feeble attempt that left me pretty discouraged).

Treasure hunts: fun way of evangelizing. pray. God gives you clues about the people you are supposed to talk to (ex. girl with brown hair and yellow shirt) and then you go find those people. Basically the people are God's treasures.

 So yesterday I asked Pastor Josh to give me a list of clues. And I decided to make the commitment to go treasure hunting today.

4:35pm

The list said that I had to go to Starbucks. So I go to Starbucks and look around for the clues on the list.  Can't find anyone.

I sit  in the corner and wait. Decide to write in my journal about how I need to step it up and have faith. To have a desire to evangelize. cause honestly I am so scared of evangelizing. I don't want to come across as like a jehovah's witness or some weird religious girl creeping around campus.

I wait for about 15 min and still no one. But I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Or maybe it's just chilly inside Starbucks?

I get a sense that I should wait until 5:00pm. Sitting there lalalalalala. Reading my clues again.

-Heart silver necklace

-Chickfila

-Starbucks

-Black and white converses

-girl yellow shirt, brown hair, pony tail

-Amanda (blue)

-Christina (depression, hopelessness)

 and then I see this girl in a pink sweatshirt limping into Starbucks on crutches. mmm interesting. and then I see that she is wearing...

A SILVER HEART NECKLACE!!

nooooooooooooooooooooo!!. omgomgomgomgomg. 

I'm so certain that I need to ask her if I can pray for her. but I'm so nervous...

basically for the next 10 minutues I'm having an epic battle with fear.

she sits down in the chairs in front of me and talks to the girl across from her. Oh see now I can't interrupt their convo. gotta wait some more. then she gets up and limps over to the Starbucks line.

 

I follow this girl to the Starbucks line, ready to introduce myself. and then I run away. She returns to her seat.

and then I sit in the chair behind her. rehearsing how I'm going to talk to her. but I can't move.

I send a text to P. Josh to pray for me. and then start praying about fear.

I remember from watching Green Lantern that courage is not being fearless. but being able to overcome fear. 

Okay. I can do this. I'm about to get up when I see this other guy come up to the girl and talk to her.

oh man I gotta wait again...why is this girl so popular.

But then I overhear him asking about the crutches. And then they're shaking hands. introducing themselves? wait a min...they just met? no way..........could it be that what I was about to do, this guy is doing it for me?

And then he asks her if he can pray for her.

That's when I bounce up from my chair. squealing about how I was just about to do that. and then I show her the clue about the silver heart necklace. and we're all so excited and amazed. and then this OTHER GIRL comes out of nowhere. and we're all laying hands and praying for her in front of everyone at Starbucks.

turns out we're all believers.

crutches girl (Emma): leads bible study on campus every Wednesdays

guy (Eli): does evangelism on campus and is involved in campus ministry

girl (Noel): is evangelizing with Eli and also involved in campus ministry

me (Rebekah): the scaredy cat who is now so amazed by God and has increased faith to evangelize.

Emma tells us that she is really blessed by this experience. I want to see this girl be miraculously healed right now. But Noel tells me that God does things on his own time. Mmm I agree.

We all exchange numbers and walk out of Starbucks amazed by the encounter.

Talk about how we should unite the different campus ministries and come together in prayer.

And I was like whoo0aoaoa0oaoa. I have been praying about that. So strange sometimes I feel like everyone around me is an atheist and I'm the only Christian on campus but sucha lie!!!

and then we see this girl running after us. it's the girl who Emma was talking to before.

She tells us that her name is Anita and how encouraged she was to see us sharing our faith and praying for people. Anita asks us for our numbers as well.

AHH could this day get any better!!!

turns out it can cause I was planning on eating cereal and microwaving taquitos for dinner. but my roomie Esther made me dinner today: bbq chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, and corn bread!!

As Paul said yesterday. Give the Lord an inch and he'll give you a mile.