Part IV: The Listener

[This is part four in a six-part series. If you haven't read the previous parts, I suggest that you go back to November 9 and start at the beginning, as each part builds on the next.]

The young woman from the States had been in the prayer service in the gazebo when she heard a still, small voice–-a voice that was both outside of her yet inside her head-–tell her to get up and go outside, which she did. The Spirit then directed her to a park bench near the one that I would choose a little later. Unknown to me, she was the person who was sitting on the first bench that I had come to when I was trying to find a place to be alone. The Spirit’s voice also directed her very clearly to put the hood of her jacket up, over her head, and to hold her headlamp in her hand, with her finger on the switch, hidden inside her folded arms. So, she sat there on her bench, the shadow created by the hood obscuring her face, flashlight in hand, praying, “Now what, Lord?” The answer: “Wait.”

While she waited, three young men approached her bench, surrounded her, speaking in a language she didn’t know. They came to her bench three times. And three times they went away, leaving her alone. She thought that they were casing her, but the hood protecting her face left them unsure whether she was male or female. What sealed it was that she had no bag or pack–nothing that looked like it might hold valuables–so they left her alone. The final time that they came to her bench, she prayed, “Lord, if they are not of you, send them away,” and they left. Sitting there in the dark, praying, listening for the voice of the Spirit and open to whatever it spoke to her, she was placed and ready for whatever was to come next.