When God Speaks…

I came to Mt. Vernon New York with my youth group from Upper Dublin Pennsylvania, and this is only my second mission trip I’ve ever been on. At Mt. Vernon this year, I have experienced a whole new level of my faith and my relationship with God. Our project leader had us do an ATL exercise where we all spread out around the sanctuary and just listen to God. Not talk to anyone beforehand or anything, just sit and listen to what God told us to say. People got pictures in their heads or words or colors or sometimes nothing at all. She reminded us that the exercise is about practicing hearing God, so sometimes we may not get anything…and sometimes what we thought was nothing at all was actually God speaking. The first time I tried this all I could see was the color yellow and a little girl in a hot pink tank top and plaid pink shorts. I had no idea what that meant so I told our project leader when it was my turn to share and then that was the end of it. We split up into groups to go on prayer walks and meet back at the church to share what happened. As soon as I walked into the door my friend Shawn ran up to me and jumped up and down and screamed, “I SAW THE GIRL IN PINK I SAW HER SHE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!” At first I had no idea what she was talking about, then I remembered she was describing the little girl I saw in my head. I was excited, but not like she was. I hadn’t seen the girl so why should I believe them.
 
The next day we did the same exercise and I had a VERY detailed vision. There was a guy in a black shirt, black hat, black beard, and jean shorts with a yellow and red design on the back left leg of the shorts. I thought that my mind was just messing with me and making up stuff.  I told our project leader but I still wasn’t so sure about it. That night when we were at the park I was playing with some of the kids who live in New York and all of the sudden I saw the guy from my vision! He had the black shirt, black hat, black beard, and jean shorts with the yellow and red design on it – back left leg. He was just walking through the park just like any other day as I was freaking out on the inside. I ran up to my youth leader Nick and screamed. “NICK THAT’S THE GUY FROM MY VISION. THAT’S HIM. HE HAS THE DESIGN ON HIS PANTS AND EVERYTHING!”
 
Nick came with me to talk to the guy, whose name we found out it was Paul.  He was very willing to talk to us and shared that he was just walking through the park that night for no particular reason. I told him the reason why I came to talk to him and how I had seen him in the vision God gave me.  He was shocked, and said it was the most mind blowing thing that had ever happened to him!  He talked to us for a long time and told me his whole life story.  We even found out that he has known another guy from the church for 20 years, but they had lost touch. God works in mysterious ways but finding Paul has blown MY mind and excelled my relationship with God faster than I ever could have imagined!