the cathedral
Travel days. At the end of every month, we get our things together, we pack our bags, we say our hard and tear-filled goodbyes, we take one last look at our home for that month and we begin the journey to our new home. Travel days are hard but one thing we’ve learned on the race is that life is ministry and ministry is life. Our times of ministering are not confined to the days that we are in each country. Even on the “in-between” days God is still working and we are still His vessels.
Crossing the border into Bolivia was difficult. We had a 24 hour bus ride from Cusco to La Paz and we were stuck for hours at the border because of complications with visas and a very strict border control. Once we arrived in La Paz, the plan was to stay there for a few nights before making another 30 hour bus ride to our destination of Trinidad, Bolivia. We booked a fun and cute hostel and we planned to explore La Paz and get a few days of rest in before continuing our journey.
We arrived at the hostel late at night, it was pouring down rain, we were cold, wet and tired. In order to accommodated our whole group, the hostel sent some of us to stay at the hostel across the street they were partnered with. As our team stepped into the hostel across the street, I immediately felt like I stepped into a heavy and dark place. We’ve experienced different types of spiritual warfare since being on the race but this was unlike anything I’ve felt before. As I looked around, the murals on the walls were of twisted and disfigured angels and the pictures hanging up were of Jesus. The hostel was called The Cathedral but all around there were demonic representations of Christian symbols and images. My immediate reaction was anger. I was frustrated that we weren’t staying in the hostel that we booked and I was bothered that we had to stay in a place that was filled with things that were mocking the very reason we were all there. But I’ve learned that there is no coincidences in the Kingdom. We were there for a purpose; we just didn’t know what that was yet.
Over the last 3 months, God has been slowly trying to break me of a life long striving mentality. It has been a slow and difficult process but I am learning that when I want to react with doing something, I need to worship instead. So my natural reaction to this situation would be try and look for scripture to speak over this place, start casting things out, and defending my Jesus. But instead, we all felt like worship was going to be our warfare. So on the last night, our team and Peace of Freedom’s team (we call it team Peace of Fiercely Loved Freedom) got together to worship. As we gathered in the living room of the downstairs lobby, we asked Holy Spirit to come. SHOOT. Guess what He did? Yeah. He showed up. He filled that place in such a thick and tangible way. He was giving us revelations about our life and empowering us to speak into one another. We weren’t even focused on the darkness surrounding us. We were not focused on the mockery. We were not concerned with trying to shoo the evil away. We were focused on Jesus; the real Jesus. As we kept our eyes on Him, the darkness seemed to fade away. Light tends to do that to darkness.
When we don’t know what to do or where to go, all we need to do is keep our attention on Jesus. This is a lesson I am learning hard so far this month. God has kept me close to John 14 in verses 4-6 where Jesus is comforting his disciples. Jesus says, “You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas speaks up. Oh Thomas, how I relate so heavily to you. Thomas replies, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Thomas spoke out of a desire to get things right. Jesus was telling them about this beautiful place He was preparing for them and Thomas wanted to make sure he could actually get there. He wanted Jesus to pull out the GPS and give him the step by step directions to the place Jesus was talking about even though Jesus clearly told them that they already knew the way. But then Jesus so gently reminds Thomas that He is the way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is our GPS and He is our destination. When I don’t know where to go or what to do, the best option is for me to keep my eyes on Him and He will lead me to all the things.
When we ended our time of worship we began to pray over that building. We prayed that the Lord’s presence would remain in that place long after we leave. We prayed salvation over all who entered. We prayed that what the enemy intends to be a mockery, God would use to encounter people in real ways.
Life is ministry and ministry is life, even on travel days. God sent us there to bring His light into a dark place. It was so fun worshiping and praising our way through that cathedral. We kept our eyes on Jesus and He led us into a sweet encounter with Him.
P.S. For anyone wondering how the travel days ended, we made it to our final destination! 48 hours on a bus, 3 Lord of the Rings movies, 3 river crossings, 2 dramamines and 1 silly looking visa picture later, WE ARE IN TRINIDAD, BOLIVIA.
