Soaring on Wings of Eagles

I am filled with a lot of joy right now as I sit down and try and record all the answers to prayer and all the ways that we have seen God move in the past week or so. I want to share with you the incredible story that we have been part of that has really taken shape in the past couple of days. As some of you may know, things here at the Olympics have been going great. The Kaleo group is known and well liked by the workforce and we have been given some great opportunities to serve and to love other simply for the sake of loving them. We have been blessed with incredible energy and excitement, however over the past couple days, as a group our focus has shifted. Jim described like we were little kids paddling in a canoe, but not really going anywhere. We had grown weary. Our attitudes changed from being in God's will to being at work. I personally have found it very difficult to pray and go out of my way to start conversations with others and I know that others experience this too. We had a great chapel the other night addressing this and the main verse that we looked to was Isaiah 40:31 which says that those who hope (or wait) on the Lord will renew their strength. I know that many people were praying and have been praying for us even over these past couple of days. We asked that God would open up our eyes to the things that he is doing, in the same way that Elisha’s servant’s eyes were open to God’s angels surrounding the hills. We asked for strenght and energy to get through the days. We asked that God’s truth and his words would be constantly on our lips, and we would be eager to spread those words of life to all that we encounter. We also asked that our perspective would change to one that is hopeful and full of trust and anticipation of how God will show us why we are here today. Going into today had a totally different feel to it than the other days. We were hopeful, eagerly waiting for God to make himself known at the Olympics, similar to a hungry obedient dog sitting and waiting for the command from his master to go ahead and eat. Let me share about my experiences today, which are only some of the many that were shared as Kaleo.

This morning, my position took me to a spot where I was all by myself monitoring a path that served no purpose. The entire morning though was filled with prayer. I found myself having words to pray again, and things to be hopeful for and request to bring before the Father. As I went into break, I sat beside one of the head honchos of the venue, a guy named P. I enjoy P., he is full of energy and is genuine. As I sat beside him, he encouraged me saying that everyone from Kaleo is doing an incredible job here at the olympics and that everyone notices that there is something different about us. He said that to wake up at 4 in the morning and be full of life is evident that we have something driving us and it motivates and encourages all the workers. His exact words were that we are being excellent “ambassadors” and “missionaries” here at the Olympics! I was able to bring encouragement to him as I have noticed something different about him compared to the others that he works with and I told him that. Maybe he shares the same hope that we have.

So the morning was full of prayer, the afternoon was full of opportunity. I talked with another supervisor, D., and he was just going on about how great the bible college group was. He said that he goes around telling people that he would take all of the bible school kids to be on his crew any day. He encouraged me by saying that we want to be there, and we are a pleasure to work with and that we are making a difference. So those two conversations helped to renew my hope that God is working through us and is using us collectively, as his church here at the Whistler Olympic Park.

I got moved into a security tent were I was working alongside two people in their twenties, a guy and a girl who were totally into the party scene in Whistler and lived to get through the day and party hard through the night. The one guy told me that I could consider him to be an alcoholic. Bible school came up on conversation and I felt like this was my time to be bold in my conversation so after we talked a bit about theology I asked them what they believed. The girl said that she believed in Jesus, and God and Joseph and stuff, so I kept prying a bit more, and asked how that impacts her life. It turns out that I had the opportunity to share the entire gospel message to the two of them, plus about another two workers who were listening in on the side. Please pray for them as God has planted some seeds in their heart. Pray that others would come and water it and that the truth that was spoken to them today would run through their mind daily. Even though they were a bit hesitant when they first found out I was a Christian, they were genuinely interested in what I had to say and I could tell that it intrigued them. When they left as their shift ended, a guy named A. replaced them and he was from Haiti. We had a great conversation about Haiti but once again, Jesus came up in conversation. Turns out he was a baptist that didn’t really go to church anymore. I felt like again, I needed to be bold with him, so I asked him if he was still being filled up. Not really knowing what this meant, I elaborated and explained the need to be reading his word daily. He explained that he didn’t have a bible and wasn’t getting filled up anymore. It just so happened that I had a New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs bible in my bag that I carried around just in case I ever needed one to reference or even to give away. I gave him this bible and he was grateful to receive it. Along with it I gave him the verse John 10:10 which has been on my heart for the past several days. He said something like, “How cool is this! We just met a little while ago and now we are talking to each other about Jesus! I have a friend who also talks to me about Jesus!” He seemed pretty pleased to have his own bible and I am really pleased to have been able to give him one.

This has been an incredible day. Tonight was a night of great rejoicing in answer to prayer and excitement to see God at work through us. Again, this is simply my own experience of today, the night was full of other stories of how we are being, according to P., ambassadors for Christ here at the Olympics.

Keep praying and hoping for big things.