Hi friends!! It feels so crazy to be writing this blog today, my last day in Jeffreys Bay. It’s been a while since my last blog post. It’s been a bit difficult to figure out what to write this post about because I’ve had a lot of cool experiences over the past couple of weeks. I am so excited to get to share all of it with you guys in person so soon!! Today I wanted to share about an encounter that I had in a coffee shop on my birthday on Saturday.
The morning of my birthday I woke up excited to spend the day with my team and celebrate. My teammates made me feel so loved from the moment I woke up to all of the “happy birthday” whispers from my teammates that were still laying in bed. We decided to go to my favorite coffee shop here called “first light“. I was so excited because the coffee is good and I just love the overall vibes of the place.
We ordered coffee and breakfast and then my dear friends Katie and Autumn had a cute gift all wrapped up for me. it was a journal that they had written very nice things throughout the journal, and of course a Florentine from Infood bakery (Autumn knows they’re my favorite). As we sat and talked a couple of us just started to feel heavy due to some of the people surrounding the outside of the coffee shop and some people inside.
We noticed a woman outside that Wendy, our ministry host, had told us about. She had been bitten by a spider on her arm and didn’t have enough money to get proper treatment so Wendy had given her money to go to the hospital. As we saw her, my friend Liv immediately went over to sit with her (Liv if you’re reading this, I love your heart!! Your kindness is so encouraging!). My friend Mason and I were just talking about how we loved Liv‘s unquestionable obedience to the Lord and her heart for others when Mason realized that she had medical gauze in her purse. She had put it in there the night before not knowing why she needed it. We had Liv give it to the woman so that she could continue to take care of her arm. From that moment I just really felt the holy spirit moving.
A few minutes later as I was thinking about the heaviness that I felt, I started feeling a tug towards a man that was sitting at the table behind us. I really felt the Lord urging me to go and talk to this man. I sat there and wrestled with the Lord for a couple minutes. My immediate thought was “God, can’t I just pray for him from right here?”. The answer was clearly no, so I decided to tell the people I was sitting with what was going on in my head and my heart. They of course encouraged me to follow the urge and go talk to him. So I finally gave in and put my mask on and went over to the table he was sitting at.
I asked him if I could sit with him and just started getting to know him and his story. It was so cool to get to sit with him and just get to know him. Towards the end of the conversation I asked if there was anything specific that I could pray for him about and he told me that he had a stroke and so he continually prays for healing over his body. I then asked him if I could pray for him at that moment and he said yes. I prayed for healing and multiple other things that I felt the holy spirit bring to my mind. He thanked me so many times after that before he left and seeing the smile on his face made me so happy that I had took that step of obedience.
The Lord taught me so much throughout this interaction and reminded me that even on my birthday, I am not the point of the story. It made me so excited to continue to keep my eyes open to where God is leading me. I am so excited to take this new heart posture back to the states. I can’t wait to see you all so soon!! Thanks for reading 🙂
-Lex <3
Beautiful stories. Thanks for being obedient to go to South Africa, and for allowing God to use you there. We want to hear more of the stories when you are back in Iowa!!