Upper Omalo
July 23, 2021
Awakened from my sleep by the sound of music and what I learned was three neighbors that were belligerently drunk at 7:00 am, I started today in a dangerous posture of annoyance rather than gratitude. A few of my more gracious teammates walked down to the men to address the disturbance and shared the Gospel with them. Not long after they’d walked down, Justin returned to share the gift that they’d been given. Watermelon and orange fanta.
I had no idea before that, but some of the team began to rejoice because Raquel had been asking the Lord to provide watermelon for us and He had used these men to do that this morning. My posture shifted and I offered a prayer of thanks to the Lord not only for the gift, but because my fever had broken and I was feeling refreshed.
We rejoined the Czechs today to finish moving the rocks and got to have cool conversations about how God had answered our prayers for fruit. One of the men responded inquisitively, “Why are you asking for watermelon when you could be praying for these rocks to be moved.” This presented a sweet opportunity how God had moved the rocks from one place to another by sending us to help them. God gave them sixteen extra hands and they’d now seen that provision, but maybe didn’t acknowledge that it was divine intervention.
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A little family photo after we finished the job!
Once again, we were given lunch at the guesthouse and because we’d finished moving the rocks, we decided to spend the afternoon resting. The girls watercolored and eventually had us pray over their art for prophetic words and we delivered them to the folks that had been cooking for us the past two days.
Upper Omalo to Dartlo
10.9 Kilometers or 6.8 Miles
July 24, 2021
This morning we left our campsite in Upper Omalo at about 9:15 and began our short trip to Dartlo about seven miles away. Unfortunately, as we were walking away, I had this pounding feeling in my gut that we shouldn’t be leaving, but we’d already been here far longer than we’d planned, so I didn’t vocalize anything to the team.
Then I saw it. On our way out of Omalo, we walked passed a dead snake in the road. This could mean a host of things and I settled with the idea that it means that we squashed the demonic presence that was alive in that village.
Last night at dinner, we interacted with a sweet couple that gave us their meatballs. It was an interesting situation, but it’s significant because they drove passed us on the way to Dartlo and opted to stop and offer us a ride. There wasn’t room for all eight of us, so they took Raquel, Lindsey, Scott, and all of our backpacks and dropped them off in the village. Fortunately and completely unexpectedly, they came back for the rest of us and took us to meet our friends. Their kindness to us was overwhelming.
Once we arrived and set up our camp, Lindsey, Raquel, Jacken, and I went into the village to see what was going one. At a glance, this was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places that I’d ever been before. But after walking for a while, we realized how lifeless and joyless this place was, so we began to sing and pray, inviting the Joy of our Father to enter in.
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I was spending time with the Lord and then some cows invaded our space.
Our small budget made finding dinner difficult, but we found a kind family that worked with our budget to provide a traditional Georgian spread for us.
At dinner we talked through the logistics of the remainder of the trek and prayed together. Lindsey got a vision of us serving some people back in Omalo and that reminded me of the feeling that I had when we left earlier that day. So after dinner, I asked Raquel, Jacken, and Jerome to join me in praying about why I was feeling that and why Linds had that vision.
Sleeping through this night was more difficult than any other. I learned that my sleeping pad has a hole in it and deflates within minutes of me laying on it, so I was definitely sleeping on the ground for the rest of this trip. Then I discovered that my tent is not sufficient for camping in the rain. Not only was some of my stuff soaking wet before midnight, but there were puddles of water inside and the only reason I was dry was because I was laying on my deflated sleeping pad.
All night long, I tossed and I turned eventually falling off my pad and into the water. How unfortunate. But it gave me plenty of time to talk to the Lord and ask for clarity on what our next steps should be on the trek.
Father, we only want to obey. Speak clarity and definition over these coming days. I love you. Amen.
Check out what happened next HERE.
I love you.
AWM
