While we were gathering our necessities for our adventure day, Arnie had said to me, “You can bring your guitar if you’d like.” Unsure of our exact plans, I trusted his thought and grabbed my guitar before we left the apartment. Most of my hesitancy was attached to the fact that he’d also told us to bring swim trunks if we desired.
As we began to crawl out of the retro van that Arnie whipped us around in all month, he warned us to bring any of our valuable possessions due to the faulty lock system on the vehicle. Rolling my eyes, I slung my guitar strap over my shoulder and wore the instrument on my back as we ascended the marked path to begin this long awaited hike. Now that we were here, I began to regret my decision to bring the guitar along, but I chose not to dwell on this mistake and to embrace the fact that Arnie intentionally invited me to bring it.
One of my favorite things about this team is that we have given one another the permission to goof off in whatever way we deem appropriate under the circumstances. Because of that, we seized the opportunity to film our own version of MTV’s “Cribs” in some of the caves that we were passing on our hike. The second of the two that we chose was rather large, so while they were filming on one side, I began to worship on the other. You wouldn’t believe the excellence of the acoustics in there.
Per usual, I had my eyes closed as I worshipped and didn’t realize that my music had begun to draw a crowd. When I opened my eyes, I saw the joy on their faces and it brought a smile to mine. Most likely, these people didn’t know English, therefore they didn’t know what I was singing, but still they chose to record this moment and I felt blessed that the Lord was doing work through me and neither I nor they knew that right off the bat.
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Just some snapshots of me, my guitar, and my pal Jerome! (He’s still fundraising if you’re feeling generous.)
We continued on our way and a stranger came running up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. He wanted access to my YouTube channel, which doesn’t exist, so I gave him my instagram account and he went on about his business.
After a while, we stumbled upon the main attraction of the hike, a rather large tunnel that had been constructed in the rocks to reroute water drainage down the mountain and through the valley. Taking notice of the acoustics once again, I found a spot in the tunnel and began to worship, drawing another crowd. This time I was more aware of the fact that God wanted to work in this, so I intentionally sang songs of worship to Jesus. Those practicing the Islamic faith don’t agree that He was God, so I wanted to make sure it was Him I was exalting.
Later, we arrived at our final destination, a series of tombs in caves. At this point, I was finding an immense amount of joy in singing in these spaces and the people around me also seemed to be enjoying this as well.
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If you look closely, you can see me hangin’ out in the cave with my guitar.
While I was singing, Arnie was approached by a woman who does not speak English and she didn’t miss a beat. She looked at him and asked “What is he singing? Is he worshipping God?” That created the space for our host to have a Gospel conversation with her and then she began to wander around the crowd to share the news of what I was singing. Revival was breaking out. I sang one last song that I wrote myself. It’s from Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in Isaiah chapter six. (I promise, there’s a blog coming about that soon! ;P) As I sang the words to this song, I simultaneously prayed that the Spirit of the Living God would rest on every person within the sound of my voice. That He would invade and transform their hearts with the words of the scriptures as they replayed the videos that they’d taken that day. I prayed for His glory to be revealed and for his name alone to be exalted.
As the day began to wind down and we retraced our steps back to the van, I thought through the events of the day beginning with Arnie’s invitation to bring my guitar. If I’d rested in my confusion and allowed it to have the best of me, I would have missed the sweetness that came with this day.
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My Squad Leader, Tito, joined me for a while to worship! (He’s also still fundraising if you’re feeling generous.)
What’s God asking you to do that seems a bit peculiar? Maybe you’ve even convinced yourself that you’re mishearing him because his invitation doesn’t make sense to you. All I’m saying is that my obedience to bring my guitar on a hike provided him the opportunity to have worship songs downloaded onto the phones of so many Muslim people.
Embrace the awkwardness and abnormality of what He’s asking of you to do. I promise He’s worth that.
I love you.
AWM
