Our very first show of tour was hilarious! We arrived at Otarahanga High School, set the gear up, went to sound check and nothing worked... Steve, our tour manager, was running around trying to find the problem and we already had all the students packed into the hall waiting. As an MC for the school show, I jumped on stage and apologised for the delay due to technical difficulties. Eventually we found that the speakers were plugged in incorrectly - classic. We got through the show and the crowd were behind us and supportive despite the rocky start. But the way I saw it was only up from here! And it made a good story to start the journey hehe.
Day two of tour I prayed: "Hi God! What do you want to say to me today?"
His response; "Don't hold back, darling. You're ready for this. I've equipped you. Just shine for Me. Remember that you can always talk to Me."
Then came our very first youth show! We performed at the Cambridge Community Marae. It was amazing sharing our message with people for the first time after all the rehearsals and effort we put into preparing it. The comments we received afterwards were so encouraging too. The most memorable for me was a Maori lady who explained that so many of her youth and the children in her community and whanau struggle with negative thinking, suicidal thoughts, and brokenness. She said the message we shared of positivity, hope, and living our lives based off truth not merely emotion was EXACTLY what they needed to hear. I guess that was a big statement right at the beginning of tour. It showed me why I'm in this. It's because the people of this nation desperately need to know they are loved.
This was proved to me even more the next day when I was listening to God and heard:
"Tonight you're going to meet someone who needs to hear from Me. It's a girl. I'll show you who, don't guess, just listen. Yes, this is me speaking. Trust, Sonya. Let me use you."
Me: "God, enable my ears. Don't let me miss this."
God: "You won't if you listen. Believe."
So there we were at our show, performing and ministering at C3 Hamilton. I had just finished praying with a girl and her youth leader was thanking me saying, "Wow, everything you prayed for related perfectly to her life situation and current circumstances, thank you so much!" I didn't know her at all so that was clearly Spirit-lead in itself. I thought to myself okay that must have been the girl God talked to me about but then straight away I heard, "No, there's more." I was like alrighty what's next. Just then I looked up and saw another girl, she was by herself standing up on a balcony watching the prayer and worship going on. I felt a nudge and so headed up the stairs to go talk to her. As I was walking toward this stranger I prayed, "God is there a word you want to give her?" The word 'beauty' came to my mind. I approached this girl wondering how this whole ordeal would go but trusting God to lead me. All I said was hey I'm Sonya, what's your name? After introducing herself she says - with no questions or prompting from me - "I'm not a Christian. But I keep coming back to these events because I always feel something different here. I believe in God but like I don't know if I should go for Christianity because my family really doesn't like it... I'm just not sure what to do about it." WHAT?! Who just says that?! God must have covered me in a way to make me seem super trusting or something because to her I was a complete stranger and yet she opened up like that... So anyway I just encouraged her saying that what she feels at this church is God's Presence and that although people have their doubts, there is no denying that her experience is reality, a genuine feeling, she knows full well that God is real. I also let her know that she doesn't have to rush into a decision to follow God because He will be patient with her and He has everyone on their own journey. Then I let her know about that word 'beauty'. I said I wasn't sure how it related to her or if it meant anything, God just gave me the word by itself but as I said this she teared up, almost crying and simply said, "Woah. That makes sense." This was an amazing encounter for me and one of my favourite stories from tour. It just showed me that listening to God's directing always results in an impact. I don't know where she's at now. In fact I will never know if she chose to follow God or how her family is or what beauty meant to her but I can be assured that God did work in that moment, in both of us.
"I will look for those that are lost, bring back those that wander off, bandage those that are hurt, and heal those that are sick... When I break my people's chains and set them free from those who made them slaves, they they will know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 34:16, 27b)
