We are here in Brussels and I have a fever and I am feeling terrible. I need lots of prayer that this would go away.
Our flight left at 8:10 am from Los Angeles to Dulles on March 19, 2008.
I arrived at our gate an hour early and no one from my team was there. It made me nervous up until 5 minutes before we boarded and I finally saw them. Apparently they were in the Red Carpet club relaxing before the flight, until they discovered that Darwin forgot his immunization record. They had to call and make sure that Rwandan customs would allow a faxed copy and then they had Hazel, his wife fax it over. While I was sitting there I met Catherine, she is on staff at Saddleback and she was flying over with us. We ate lunch in Dulles and boarded our flight to Brussels. My team was upgraded to business class while I sat in the economy (not economy plus) section of the plane. My crappy seat was actually a blessing in disguise because I sat next to a man named Murick. He is from Europe, living in Austin, TX but moving back to Germany to live by his parents. He owns a construction business in Austin and has had a rough life to say the least. We started talking about the books we were reading. I was reading Purpose Driven Life and he was reading Put on your party pants…which is a book about learning to live life to the fullest. I laughed and noted on how our books were completely different. I started telling him what PDL was about and then handed him a little book called “What on earth am I here for”, the mini version of PDL. He started reading it and told me how much he liked it. He said as soon as he could find a PDL book he was going to buy it.
Raised a Catholic by his parents, he joined the Soviet army and because of the communist country was not allowed to leave the country nor the army. In an effort to regain his freedom, he and 2 other soldiers planned an 8 month escape. To be caught crossing the soviet border meant death. He turned his eyes away from God and started worshipping the devil. He hated God and wanted whatever power the enemy could give him. He told satan that if he would give him whatever he wanted then satan could take him at age 40. Well he is 43 now and still living. When he moved to Austin he snapped his Achilles tendon and was out for 8 months. He was not able to do anything because of the crutches. Because of this a friend from Austin asked him to join him for church. The friend attends a non-denominational Christian church. So he went and 4 years ago he asked for forgiveness from God. He says he realizes what he has done and says the only explanation that he has for why he is still alive and not in prison is because of God. He does not know why God kept him alive and safe all these years he was doing “very bad things”, as he says, but he says he wishes to find out one day. In hearing his story I told him that he had an incredible testimony. He could one day, when God had prepared him enough to do so share his story with other unbelievers and even satan worshippers. I told him that people like that do not like to hear about God from people like me. They think I don’t understand their background and history, which is probably true. I then asked him if he prays a lot. He told me no because he is afraid to ask God for things. So instead he just thanks God for the many things He has given him thus far. And he said that he was thankful to God for meeting me and hearing what I had to say. So I proceeded to explain why prayer is so important for building a personal relationship with the Lord. That God wants more than just us saying we believe in Him. It is about a relationship, not a religion, as Pastor Rick always says. Not having my Bible within reach I just so happened to open my PDL book to the chapter on prayer. A “God thing” to say the least. I shared with him what Pastor Rick had written about why we need to pray and then shared some Bible versus from the book with him. At the end of the flight I realized that God had a plan bigger than my own. He wanted me to be in the back irritated so that I could help encourage this man in his walk with the Lord. In moving to Germany he is worried that he will stop going to church because he won’t find a church like his church back in Austin. So in an effort to keep him in church I encouraged him to watch saddleback services on line and to scope out churches in Germany that fits his needs. When I think that I know what is best for me, God always has a bigger plan. He wanted me back there to speak to him and to encourage him in his walk with the Lord. I opened myself up to be thoroughly used by the Lord and he is doing just that. So please keep Murick in your prayers that he will continue to grow in his walk with the Lord and that he will find not only a church to attend in Germany that will challenge him, but that he will discover his purpose and allow God to use him for His work.
So I am fighting my fever but I will be in Kigali in about 9 hours. So please keep me and my team in prayer and that God would heal my body!
1 comment:
That's AWESOME.
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