What God Was Up To

A couple weeks ago I was covering the morning shifts in the cafe I work at here on base. It was a nice little adventure, I lived on base and got up at 5:45 every morning. Then I would make espresso with my friend Jake for two hours. Once the shift was over I would get a drink and read my bible on the couch. Pretty standard all week, until one morning.

I had been trying to figure out what happened with my clothes the previous week, "I know I got the shirts Lord, but you said that I would get all those clothes." Now I have to say faith shopping was never about getting clothes. What it really was is this, an experiment of walking in radical faith and relationship with God.

So I was going to read my bible when a friend came and stopped me, and asked me if I wanted to come with him to office max. Sure. So we went, now Office Max is really boring and nothing really happened there worth mentioning. So we got back in his car and we were about to drive back to campus and I was debating wether I should retell the events of last weeks adventure, when I was asked, "Do you want anything?"

Now I was at a loss for an answer because I didn't understand the question, it was a bit vague. "What do you mean?" I replied. "Like, do you need any clothes?" "You know it funny you should say that, I do." So I told him the story of the week before as we went to target. every piece of clothing that I put on hold was bought. I mean all of it. The flannel that I had originally put on hold had no tag, the one I grabbed with my friend, the same one. Some times we are like little kids demanding our deserts before our dinner, but God cares about our nutrition.

What Really Happened last week

Did I hear God wrong? That was my question, a fair one I feel after the weeks misadventures. But unbelief and doubt rarely bring us closer to the Lord. So I said, "I don't fully understand this situation, I know what I heard. I know that it does not match what happened, but your still good, and thats what matters." So friday morning I sat in the cafe reading my bible and my friend called to me, "Alex, there is something in the fridge for you." Every morning after riding my bike to base I would go into the cafe, open the fridge and get a glass of water, this day was no different, and there was nothing out of the ordinary in the fridge. So you can imagine my curiosity when my friend Madison said this. "What is it?" I replied. To which she said, "Just come look." So I did. Right there in the fridge was the very pack of shirts that were put on hold two days earlier.

so what happened? Lets go back to tuesday.

We were full of faith and expectation for what God was going to do. it was almost 8 and Brit and I were still on base, I had a feeling that Target was going to close close at 9, seeing as how thats when everything closes here in Kona. So we got our bikes and were about to head out when we were intercepted by a girls small group, all of which I might add were wearing red make shift vests. Brit being the delight that she is began to inform our vested friends what we were about to go and do. Finally after a trust fall, we left. In that group of people was a girl named Taylor, she was in the same type of spot we were in. She needed huge financial breakthrough for her school or she would have to go home. The crazy thing is, the Lord said to her when we told her what we were doing, "I want you to buy them each one thing." So she is thinking to herself, "Lord how am I supposed to do that when I need money myself?" We left and she continued on with her night, wondering if she heard Jesus right or not and how it was all going to work out.

The next night, Taylor and two friends went to Target. She ran into none other than yours truly, we told them what we were still doing and about how we needed to dream bigger. Well that was the final straw for miss Taylor, she had heard the Lord and it was now time to walk out in obedience. We put our stuff back on hold and left. Seizing this golden window and choosing to save what money she had by not buying junk food, Taylor went up to the hold counter and asked to see our bag of clothes. With great indignation the employee brought out our bag of goodies. As she went through it she found the cheapest items, a pack of shirts and a pair of tights. Then she bought them.

For some reason on Thursday, when we went back to Target, we didn't look back in the bags, if we had we would instantly have known that something had happened. We picked up our bag but did not look into it, then we left. which brings us back to the fridge. I suddenly remembered the previous day, Taylor had asked me, "Alex, who were the white shirts for, you or Brit?" then I knew. She gave Brit the tights in the Prayer Room and also got 400 dollars that morning. I was so ecstatic that God had made a way for me to get these shirts. But I had heard him say that he was going to get all of the clothes and I couldn't help but wonder, "What are you up to God?"

Faith shopping part 1

Faith shopping. Thats right shopping by faith, its exactly what I did two weeks ago. As you all know right now I am exceptionally low on cash, as all my money is going to outreach. So here is the story, Brit, Chris Johnson, and myself decided to go on a bike ride monday evening and we found ourselves at target. while there we found some clothes that would be great in the northeast, for me a pair of skinny jeans and a flannel, it gets cold I hear, and Brit found three dresses, layers she says. Chris did not find anything. I thought to myself some new white shirts would go great with this. we decided that in faith we would put them on hold in the hope and belief that some how God would make a way for us to get these things.

The next day we returned full of faith and hopeful expectation for what Papa had done. We went to pick up our clothes, and to our surprise, I mean we were shocked, they had not been bought yet. Time to regroup. So we did what we know to do, go back to Jesus and ask him what to do, and he told us. so for the next hour under the directions of Holy Spirit we traveled through the store, learning how to work as a team and trust God more.

Closing time, still no money, and no one had come to ask if they could pay for our stuff. "I want you to try and buy your clothes." "Are you messing with me Lord" I replied, "you know that neither of us has money to do that." So I told Brit, "ask the Lord, yes or no." In no time her retort was yes. so we went up to the counter and laid our clothes down, afraid and yet excited for what could happen. She scanned the clothes, $120.31, "Brit, you want to tell her what were doing?" and so she did. And of course this woman looked at us like we were a bit off in the head, and then you know what happened when I took out my wallet to pay for everything? nothing, no money. Though she told Brit, that she was very encouraged by our faith.

So we put our clothes on hold again. The next day we went back, we had decided we did not want to spend the whole evening there. So we picked up our clothes, once again no one had bought them. While we were there we saw some friends from campus and told them what we were doing. Since no one had paid for them, we put them back on hold, but before we did Brit felt like the Lord said we needed to dream bigger, so I added a pack of white shirts and Brit added some tights. We also felt like this was the last time to put them on hold, and if they were not bought we would have to put them back.

The next night, the last night we had decided. We went back, this time we felt like we were supposed to walk around the store and pray for some one before we picked up our clothes. So we did. As we were about to return to the beginning of our circuit we saw a woman, about 50 feet away. She was the one to pray for. So we came up to her and started to talk with her, turned out she is a christian from the other side of the island, she was with her daughter that day and had been shopping all day. And she needed some healing, so we did what we always do, prayed, sadly she was not healed there on the spot, but she sure was encouraged. Then we felt released to pick up our clothes. Like the other times we went up full of faith and expectation, but once again like the last times they had not been paid for, so we said we would like to put them back. Then we left.

Jamalabad Part deux

Aaron left, and it was also time for us to go to the village. it was no longer a frozen wasteland but it was instead Shangri la. no really they say the Hunza Valley was the location of the famous Shangri La. any way we spent two and a half weeks up in the village teaching for real, this time school was in session. i taught English using a book called "A Tale of Three Kings" by Eugene Peterson, the book is easy to read and about David, Saul, and Absolam. this gave me great opportunities to talk about Jesus with my students and the other teachers. one of the more exciting parts of the trip was my continuing weight loss. i didn't realize that i was on a diet program. i was, its called giardia. in Gilgit i began a ten day fast, on the fifth day of no food, things started to come out again, this may have to do with the tea. on the fifth day Andy and i decided to play a game. here is how it worked, you can never say no to a cup of tea offered to you unless you absolutely have to because you will be late to a prior engagement. so, i had ten cups of tea, and the water isn't particularly clean, so... you know, i pooped. allot. another thing i did allot of was beat box and so i also taught our neighbors how to do it. oh and I got to play with goats, so... ya it was awesome

Time in Gilgit

Sadly i have been away from a country that is so dear to my heart, Pakistan. its been a year since i left on my first out reach and i still have yet to finnish the story. here is the real downer, i've forgotten much of the story, maybe a little writing will jog my memory.

well, we made it back to Gilgit, our new bus took us almost up to our door step. when we got there, another team was there from colorado to great us, they were nice. we were exhausted, and smelled, bad, i mean really bad. so the first order of business was a shower and then dinner, then sleep. Gilgit was wonderful. spring had come and things were beginning to bloom, sadly though aaron was still wilting. he took a hard blow in the mountains. and couldn't shake it, even with a visit from Dan Bauman, our school leader. so he decided, that it was time to go home. it really was a bitter sweet time, it was wonderful to see every one back in Gilgit, and yet terribly sad to know that Aaron was going to go home soon.

Im Back

Its Been a 7 month Hiatus, mostly to not putting in the effort, but the Journeys have not stopped, so i will begin to chronicle these adventures once again. allot has changed, i've made it all the way around the world, been in a few more countries made the most amazing friends, been more blessed then i can express. its been a crazy 7 months, and by the blog time its been almost a year since i left off in the story. so welcome back! strap in and get ready for allot more stories and adventures, welcome back to the journeys of Alex Graves.

The Return South

we woke up at 5 am to catch the bus at 6, the only problem was that the time had changed back, we had sprung forward an hour, so we were freaking out that we might miss the bus, i prayed and God said we had not missed the bus, which was good. we got on the bus and asked how much 4 seats would cost to gilgit, we wanted too be comfortable, they said 740 rupees, we got in and began the journey south. it was a van like the one we took to gilgit from islamabad and it was packed. we got half way there and we stopped in aliabad and they began to take our luggage off the roof, we had been warned that we would not be able to go all the way to gilgit on this bus, this is where the fun began. the driver came up to us and asked for 740 rupee, we told him that was for gilgit, but he insisted that he be paid the full amount. i am an american, we pay for the service we get and we only got half way, and we told him that, he said no that 740 is for the four seats. we said yes for the four seats to gilgit this is half way we will pay for half. at this point things were getting heated aaron went to find a new bus and i got to deal with our old driver, who did not speak much english. he came back with an english speaking pakistani and told me that it was 740 because we had our luggage on the top of the van, “no thats not right other people had their luggage there as well, i will give you 500 rupee this is more then fair” this went back and forth for a good ten minutes until he finally he begrudgingly took the money. the nice thing though was the sun had returned, or we had returned to the sunlit lands. we got on another bus this time we just had our seats