Mini ATL

Howdy,

Hope you are doing well!

Let me just brag how marvelous God has been to my team and I. There are many blessings, but the one that seemed doubtful and impossible to human, God made it possible! My team and I have been in Cambodia for over 2 weeks now. The third week was a holiday week. One of my teammates had suggested that we go on a trip to another country or countries during that week. As a travel enthusiast I said I would be down. Even having doubts that it would get approved, we started planning and writing the proposal for going to 3 different countries anyway. The first proposal got rejected because our mentor thought it’s too much to do in a week. After getting rejected we reconvene and decided to write another proposal for both one country and three countries again. The three country proposal included explanations why this could work. Also that Jesus can do things in little as 30 seconds. While brainstorming we all said that this 3 country proposal probably wouldn’t get approved, but at least AIM will have it for future racers. With the explanation and by the blessing of God this mini ATL trip to three different countries got APPROVED. I personally believe that this whole ATL trip was from God and He was with us through it all.

First country that we went to was Malaysia. In my opinion during our time there, God answered prayers and provided. Mazi had made a tentative schedule which consisted of us joining together each morning and praying for the day. The first full day my team and I started off with prayers. Then we talked about what we wanted to do. Our individual goals and desires were for the day. My goal was to hand out either food or water. We had decided to walk around a little bit and then go to a park to evangelisightsee. During our walk to the park, I noticed a man sitting and he looked like he’s homeless. I felt like God told me to go talk to him, but I was disobedient. I came up with reasons and excuses. Shortly afterwards, I saw another man in a wheelchair with his legs amputated. I felt again that the Lord is calling me to go talk to this man. Initially I hesitated, but then eventually I decided to ask Alexa to go with me to go talk to him. I am so glad that He gave me another chance when I failed the first time. We went over there and got to learn more about him and the square that he was staying at. Little did we know, the square was a place where homeless people stayed. After getting more information from the man, Caroline and I both had thought of getting them food. We went and got a meal for each person that was at the square. Mazi and Alexa prayed for each person there. We did end up going back for the second time to get more food because more people showed up. We were able to bless 13 people that day with a meal.

Singapore, I would summarize this as Jesus leaves the 99 and goes to find the lost one. It started off with Caroline and I just went for a walk. We had been walking for a few hours just to sight see. After sightseeing we were going to meet up with Alexa and Mazi for dinner. While walking back to meet them, we came across a young lady that was our age all by herself. We made eye contact with her, but then we kept on walking because we needed to meet our friends for dinner and we didn’t want to be late. But after a couple minutes Caroline felt the Lord telling her to go back and talk to her. So we went back and asked what she was doing? She said that “I am spending time with God”. She also shared with us that she has been struggling with meeting Christian friends and trying to find her purpose in life. After chatting for a while, we decided to invite her to dinner with us with our friend. She was so glad and said “yes” immediately. The next day we met her and got to encourage and pray with her while we were just hanging out. This whole situation reminds me of the parable of “The lost sheep” in Luke 15:3-6.

Luke 15:3-6

Then Jesus told them this parable:4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Bali Indonesia, such a beautiful place that God created! Through our adventure, my team and I had many opportunities to meet people and share Jesus with them. A cool testimony that I got to witness was Mazi sharing the gospel while she was getting her Henna done. Wow! Mazi is such a great friend who is so personal with people. She was so bold that she got to share the story of Jesus to a Hindu man. This man that was doing her Henna, had never heard of Jesus before. Nor has he ever touched/seen a Bible before. Through this conversation Mazi was able to learn some information about Hindu religion. When we weren’t talking to anyone, I was praying, reflecting back on the blessing and gratitude for the things that the Lord has done in my life. I was also in awe and in gratitude for the beautiful things and people that Jesus created in this world! This reminds me of the Bible verse of John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God is good all the time; All the time God is good!

Love, Peace and Joy,

YuMei