Thus Saith the Lord: BUY CHICKENS

Meet Bryan and Daniel. They’re my chickens. 

One day as we were walking the streets of Chichicastenango, Guatemala praying for people and giving them food, I felt like God told me to buy two chickens to give away to a random family. 

 

Um…What? Did I hear that right, God? See it was difficult because it’s not like it was this audible voice of the Lord. We’re talking inner witness type stuff. That gut feeling that you‘re supposed to do something even if you don’t get why. 

 

So in my desire to obey God in the big and little things I bought two chickens and carried them around for hours trying to figure out who I was supposed to give them to. As I was in the chicken shop I was crying from both joy and shock and hoping I wouldn’t have to do our next travel day with these guys. 

 

I took them to lunch (which happened to be chicken. Oops), a coffee shop (where I taught them all about receipts and finances), and our soccer game against the city police officers (which I thought best they not participate in). 

 

It was one of the weirdest things God has asked me to do but I learned a while ago that obedience in the things you don’t quite understand can bring an incredible amount of joy.

 

At the soccer game I ended up hurting my leg pretty bad and couldn’t walk with the rest of my team to the place we would get picked up to go home. So a teammate and I took a tuk tuk to a hotel and waited on a bench in the courtyard for everyone else to show up. 

 

This was a hotel we came to frequently to eat, shower, and use their wifi. Because of this, people on my team had already started to form a relationship with the hotel owner. As I sat there outside of his office I felt like maybe this was the guy who would get my chickens but I wasn’t sure. I think I was waiting for another huge gut feeling to tell me what to do. But that never came. 

 

As more time passed I guess I just thought there was no harm in asking. So I grabbed someone to translate for me and asked Juan, the hotel owner, if he knew a family that needed some chickens? He looked at me with surprise and excitement and told me “Yes! My family! My wife is raising chickens!” (in Spanish of course).

 

Haha. What? Okay! That was easy! So I asked to pray for the chickens before I gave them to him and he agreed. I prayed for him and his family, and that God would provide for them and protect them. I prayed over Bryan and Daniel and that they would bless his family and that God would use them and this weird situation to draw them closer to him and glorify him. 

 

And that was that. I left and will likely never know how or even IF those chickens actually impacted their lives. But I choose to believe that they will because I believe that God has so much more planned for us and the people around us in small moments of interaction and obedience than we can possibly understand. 

 

I also think God talks to us louder in some moments than he does in others and that the closer I get to him the easier it will be for me to discern what he is saying and what he wants to do through me. 

 

The way I live life with God is fun. He’s not this boss of my life that I just submit to and obey. He’s my friend and my father. Daily He gives me invitations to spend time and do life with him. And the other day it just happened to look like him saying , “Hey! How much fun would it be if we bought chickens for someone today??”