"All of the instruments and some of the equipment at the church was stolen last night."
Wait. What?
"$10,000 worth of equipment…"
I listened to this conversation a week ago, and a lot has happened in a week. We'll start at the beginning.
The Dream Team is an evangelical rock band, their lives and their ministry are tied to their instruments and their ability to perform at events in Bangkok. So, to hear that their instruments were stolen is more than a little problem, if they cannot play than they would need to come up with an entirely new ministry plan.
Naturally, my team wanted to help and the first thing that they brought up was raising money. Now, I am usually all for giving everyone at home a chance to help out if they can, I mean, look what happened with Tony. He has two cars now. But, my spirit felt uneasy about this one. I got an instant feeling that this was not the time for me to ask my supporters or my church for money. Something wasn't right.
Now, when your team is stoked about raising ten grand in fourteen days and talking about all of the different ways in which they can do so, it makes you think about how you're feeling. Selfish, right? Just don't want to ask for money again. Doubt and insecurity comes up fast. But I just couldn't get that feeling to go away.
We can raise money as a team for one ministry on the rest of our trip. And we need approval from the AIM office, a lot goes into this. So we needed to quickly make a decision, Elliot decided we'd all pray about it and then put it to a vote. Whatever the team voted is what we would do. Fair enough.
By this point I was kind of hoping that when I prayed God would be like "Yes, of course I want you to help the Dream Team." And I could stop feeling selfish and doubtful. But He didn't.
That darn uneasy feeling just would not go away. I ended up just saying, God I don't know what to do. Don't you want us to help them? And He said,
"My will will be done regardless of the vote. Vote what you're feeling. I've got this handled."
And I voted no. No, we should not raise money for The Dream Team right now. For some reason I really felt that God was saying no, not yet, just wait… My team didn't think so. The winning vote was yes.
Which left me confused. God, if you wanted me to help why didn't you just say so? What's going on here?
Two days later I was sitting in the church and Elliot walks up to our group and tells us that he talked to Alan and The Dream Team has insurance on all of their instruments so we will not be raising money after all.
Oh, ok that's why… right God? That's what you had in mind?
"Just wait."
About two minutes later one of The Dream Team members walks in with a keyboard. And then another with a guitar. I began to wonder what was going on.
Turns out, The Dream Team decided to run an undercover rescue operation with the police to recover their stolen instruments. The pastor's son, Praise, pretended to be an interested buyer and contacted the thief. They went to "purchase" the stolen instruments with a police team and ended up catching the thief and claiming all of their equipment except a base guitar.
And then God said,
"I told you I had it handled."
Sometimes we're supposed to raise money. Sometimes we're supposed to go. Sometimes we're supposed to do something.
And sometimes we are not.
Sometimes we get a yes.
And sometimes we don't.
Sometimes I need to get involved. Sometimes I need to allow Him to use me. And sometimes I need to trust Him when He tells me to wait. Sometimes I need Him to tell me no.
Sometimes He uses us, and sometimes He uses situations to teach us to listen. To show us the He really can handle it, that He really does have everything under control.
And as The Dream Team played their instruments in worship that Sunday, I smiled because I knew what that equipment had been through. But they didn't miss a worship service…
Jesus always wins.
That’s a hard lesson to learn, Nik, you’re way ahead of some of us old folks. Wisdom is a good thing. :o)
Darling Nikki, God gives us the answer, giving you that gut feeling was the answer, it is good that you listned, sometimes we dont listen as well as we should.And sometimes the answer is no. Love you was great hearing your voice, Christmas Eve.
nikki,
what an awesome story of the lord showing up. i love how sometimes he just works in ways that we don’t understand and don’t need to help with…keeps us humble and reminds us big he really is! annnnnnnd. makes me thankful that most of the time i get to help!!
so proud of you for listening to his voice and doing what you felt he was saying, even when you didn’t necessarily understand. so good!
hope you had a very merry christmas!
love,
ashley