Divine Appointments

In a week where I had no official appointments and was literally improvising every day, the Lord used that time to allow me to experience several divine appointments from Him. Last week I had the opportunity to hang out with youth groups at Power Plant in Colorado Springs. This is a mission experience for junior high and high school students centered around church planting. For those of you who have never heard of such a program, I hadn't either until I was asked to attend and meet the distinctive church plants in the area that each of the groups were partnering with for the week of service and sharing.

I posted early in the week after my first day, but quickly found myself totally immersed into Power Plant and what God was doing through it that I am not posting again until now! The whole week was a great growing experience in which I saw God at work in many ways, but there are two specific stories that I just have to share that I believe God orchestrated, in His loving grace, for me to be a part of.

The first moment happened on Wednesday- my second full day at Power Plant. I had just finished up interviewing Clay Ross of grassROOTS church, when we went downstairs and found a man named Allen Robinson waiting for him. Allen had agreed to help Clay get prepped for the BBQ outreach that was going to happen later that night and had showed up to start working. Clay introduced him to me as a member of their church family who just recently became the director for the church's hospitality team. We went outside to put up signs by the busy nearby road and Clay quickly had to leave to go get more tools. While we waited, I started chatting with Allen and he shared a few tidbits of his story with me. 

He had been invited to the church by a friend from the shelter he was staying at. Allen used to be an alcoholic but was now 15 months sober. He recently was baptized and gave his life to Christ and now serves at the church directing the hospitality team. It was clear that Allen had a dark, painful past and that him sharing even what he did with me was a challenge for him. 

 I told him his story was powerful and asked him if he would be interested in doing a video interview with me since I had been working on collecting videos about grassROOTS that day. Allen was hesitant and asked a few questions about why I wanted it and what it was for. But he agreed to do it because as he said, "I'll do it because I feel like God is directing me to."

I was happy that he agreed but got even more excited when I heard what Clay had to say about it. "I cant believe he agreed to do that for you. He doesn't tell his story. Thats something I have been trying to work with him on," explained Clay. 

Knowing now that this was largely out of Allen's comfort zone, I decided not to bring it up for a while until Allen asked. It didn't take too long before Allen said, "When can we do this thing?" I told him we could do the interview whenever he was ready and asked him where he would feel most comfortable for me to ask him questions. He choose the sanctuary where he was baptized. 

At that point, I am not sure who was more nervous.. Allen or myself! He explained that sharing this was extremely difficult for him and I promised him that I would try to make it as much of a normal conversation as possible. I even made an exception and allowed my voice in the interview, which is something I don't typically do but it seemed right for this situation. I told him I prayed that the Lord would just speak through him and that his nerves would be calmed. Alan then prayed out loud, "Holy Spirit just speak through me, give me words, help me." Oh and the Spirit totally did. Allen poured out his soul, leaving us both emotional and knowing that God had just moved in that place. Here is the uncut and unedited version of the interview on YouTube, I plan to edit later and add it to bigger story I am working on about grassROOTS church...

To view the interview, click here: Allen's Story or watch below.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/w0ckFImZOHo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I am so humbled at the opportunity God gave me to be a part of that story. As I travel and write as a missional correspondent, it is so evident that the Lord has much more in mind than me just reporting. He has given me an opportunity to use my interviews and storytelling as a ministry. For that is my prayer, that the Lord would guide me to the right people at the right time. That i would have ears to hear what He is doing under the surface and the grace and clarity to tell those stories through my writing. 

I think I decided to make my second moment that I was referring to, its own post! This one is getting lengthy. Thank you for reading and thank you for praying. I am so grateful for your support.