Our DC trip went wonderfully!
When we arrived and the buses dropped us off at Union Station, I was very motion sick. Not fun. But I was surrounded by helpful friends who gave me peanut butter crackers, dramamine, water, and a ginger ale. After walking around the station for a little while, I began to feel much better!
We stayed in Union Station observing internationals for about thirty minutes. While we were standing in the middle of the lobby, two acupuncture students approached me and another woman on my team (A) and asked if they could take our pulses. They have to take 40 pulses every day for their classes! We said yes, and we began talking to them as they found our pulses. I talked to Holly for a while, asking her questions about acupuncture. Apparently, there are five types of acupuncture, and only one of those, the one used in Japan, is of a spiritual nature. She asked what we were up to, and I shared how I am moving to East Africa to teach kids, teach AIDS education, and to share the love of Jesus. When she heard I was going to Sudan, she responded with a high pitch, excited "oh!" followed by a much lower, scared-sounding "Oh."
"Are you nervous?" she asked.
"No, God has given me a real peace," I said with a huge smile on my face.
After she finished taking my pulse, Asia, who just finished taking A's pulse switched with Holly and took my pulses too. (I say pulses, because they were feeling at least 12 arteries that lead to 12 major organs therefore taking 12 pulses.) Asia was a Christian (A had actually prayed with her), and she shared how excited she was that we were going to East Africa to share Christ there.
It was lunch time, so we rode the metro to the area of the city around Embassy Row. We ate lunch at El Khartoum, a Sudanese/Middle Eastern restaurant, where we met a Kenyan man named Robert. I talked with him a little in Swahili and then A's family spent time asking him about Kenya as they are headed there in just a few days!
I ate chicken shawarma. Check out my beautiful plate!
Yum!
And guess who I got to see...my dear friend Jessie!!!
Aw... just look at us in our St. Patrick's Day green.
After saying goodbye to Jessie, my group went around the corner from the restaurant on the way to find one of our embassies. T stayed behind and talked to Robert about his faith. He said that he wants to follow the Lord and accept Him as his Lord and Savior; he was just not ready. Please lift up Robert in prayer, that he'd follow through with the Holy Spirit's tug on his life.
We finally found the Kenyan embassy and were invited inside. After receiving some pamphlets on Kenya, another man, named Jeremy, came inside and started greeting us. He thought one of the kids' names was Jonathan and said, "You know, that reminds me of a story about a Jonathan whose best friend was David." Then, he proceeded to share with the us the Bible story of Jonathan and his faithful friendship to David, who would later become king. T was shocked! "Do you read the Bible?"
"Yes, I am a Christian."
T replied, "We are followers of Jesus as well!"
Jeremy was so excited and asked if he could pray for all of us. He took us back to the conference room of the Kenyan embassy to pray. While there, he told us two more Bible stories about the Good Samaritan and the Woman at the Well. He encouraged us and then prayed for us. He asked God that He would use us like large stones dropped in water, that we would be the voice of Christ that ripples to the people of East Africa, and that many would hear the truth about Jesus Christ and turn and follow Him.
After leaving the embassy, it was time to head back to the buses at Union Station. From other teams, we heard other crazy stories! One group saw President Obama. Another group wrote down the license plate number of a hit and run and then was able to share the gospel with the woman whose car was hit. Finally, another guy headed to Europe to work with college students, thinking that there was no way he'd meet college students from his country, ran into three young college guys from his country in the metro station! He shared the gospel with them and got contact information! God works in wonderful ways!
Thank you for praying. The trip was a great way to start putting into practice everything we learned in these two months of training.
Please keep praying as training finishes up on Wednesday, March 23rd. And for all the goodbyes and transitions we are all facing soon. Thank you, and God bless!
