Tomorrow, I fly out to Romania. I can’t believe I just wrote that. This path God has put me on has been so crazy already and I haven’t even left the country. I’ve spent a month and a half with a community of believers that truly inspire me to be a man after God’s own heart.
After training, we spent two weeks in Louisiana working with Samaritans Purse. Being from North Dakota I have never experienced the aftermath of a hurricane and its destruction. Months leading up to the race I was mentally preparing myself for all the tough things I would see. I never prepared myself to see that in America. What I saw in Houma, Louisiana broke my heart. All I saw for two weeks was destroyed homes and broken people. The whole experience reminded me of a thing about God, he works best in our weakness. Every homeowner we talked to still had hope for a better future. Many people gave their lives to Christ in the wake of the storm because they saw His goodness and peace in spite of this tragedy.
For those two weeks I was gutting houses, cleaning up debris, and talking to homeowners. The second to last day of Samaritan’s Purse, Dalton, my teammate, and I decided to go on a prayer walk because there wasn’t much work we could do at the moment. That is when we ran into a man named Ricky sitting on the sidewalk. Ricky was 58 years old and newly homeless. Due to a medical condition he couldn’t even work. Hurricane Ida is what destroyed the rest of his life. When we talked to him we didn’t even bring up God right away. Ricky would tell us about his struggles and then immediately say how he had faith God would save him. As we talked ,tears streamed out of his eyes. All he wanted more than anything was encouragement, to know that he was seen as a person and not abandoned. Multiple times he called Dalton and I angels because of what this meant to him. We prayed over Ricky twice and during the second time I just felt the fire of the Holy Spirit in me as I prayed over him. This whole experience showed me the importance of what we are doing. We are giving ourselves completely over to God and he is using us as a light to other people. When we told Ricky about our trip he began to cry because he didn’t think any younger people would ever do something like this. We are being a light to the world through God.
I also have some big news for you guys. After Romania we will no longer be going to Costa Rica. Now after Romania we will be going to the Dominican Republic, and then Guatemala. I was at first upset by the news, but now I’m not because I’m just excited to serve God no matter where he puts me. I know that God is gonna place me where I need to be so I have no complaints.
