A Strange Floating Candle

It's hard sometimes trying to figure out what to blog and how to portray what I am experiencing into words, but here is my shot at things that before this trip I would have never believed. So last night we went out into the bars and we had gone to the bars on our street and met girls and created new relationships but me and my partner Kim felt like we weren't finished. We felt like we had something else we had to do before meeting up with the rest of the group. So we began praying over the streets we were walking down. Kim looked at me and said, "I feel like we need to pray for the men down here". So we began walking again, praying for these men, that God would make them strong, have them walk away, and be filled with Christ love. Honestly the endless pit of thinking, oh I'm not helping, your not getting anything done down here, had begun to creep into my mind, so praying I felt was about all I was doing right. 

When all of a sudden we look up to the sky and there was a candle floating in the sky. Now I will try to portray the thoughts going through my head as accurate as they were infecting my mind last night....but I honestly thought I was going crazy. We both looked at each other and our expressions said it all. I was thinking....oh my goodness, there is a candle floating in the sky, I'm loosing it! We didn't know what to do but stare at it...when all of a sudden I said aloud, "We should follow it!" So we go walking very fast down the crowded streets of Bangla, following a light we didn't even know if others could see.  When finally it burnt out....so I started looking around on this crowded street for someone or something that this light had brought us to. We looked back up and it was burning in the sky again....when all of a sudden a man appeared before us and asked what we were looking for? We answered very hesitantly....there is a candle in the sky. He smiled and said,  "Oh yeah they let candles off the beach and they float up in the sky." Well relieved at the thought that someone else could see the candle, and that we weren't crazy, we started talking with this man that led into a 25 minute conversation about his life. After learning about this interesting man, who was from Nepal, and had worked on Bangla Road for 10 years...I was confused.  During all this craziness, I was thinking why did the light lead to this man? Who is this man? And then he said something so encouraging and so filled with light that it all made sense. He said, "Business has gotten worse these past 5 years. It keeps getting worse and worse, I might have to find a new place to sell my stuff". Now at first those words had no meaning, and then I remembered when Mark, Sharon, and all the teams started coming to Puket.....and that was 5 years ago! I can say that it was a strange night filled with interesting ways of being encouraged. But the endless mind game of your not making a difference spiral....was stopped! We are making a difference. Prayer is making a difference. Bangla road is becoming more empty! God has His timing....and just our presence alone is filling the streets with light that people are searching for. Bangla road is being filled with light one candle at a time, and yes I will shine my light...I will not hide it!