When God tells you to go swimming…

It’s 3:30pm. The busses end at 5. And we still have to grocery shop.
 
We’ll just prayer walk up and down the street real quick, so we’ll have time to get our groceries and catch the last bus, we thought.
 
Who were we kidding?
 
As we hurried down Bangla Road, covering it in rushed prayer, we were stopped by 3 very different people. They all had one very similar thing to say to us.
 
"Go swimming."
 
Our first encounter was with a high prostitute. We have lots of prostitute friends on Bangla, but this one, none of us had ever talked to before. She saw us, bolted out of her chair, and ran lightning speed out of her bar to come hug us. And then she asked us a question:

“Where you go? You go swimming?”

Now, considering the beach is at the end of Bangla road, and we were headed that way, this didn’t seem weird at all. Most everyone on Bangla knows who we are and what we do, and we’ve never been asked this before, but it seemed like a legitimate question. So we talked to her for a bit, told her we weren’t going swimming today, and continued our walk.
 
Not even a minute later, we were stopped by one of the street vendors. He’s a guy who sells DVD’s on one of the corners. I see him every day and always mean to stop and talk to him, but never have.

“I’m drunk,” he tells me, out of nowhere.

[Ok, good conversation starter, I think.]

“Where you go? Swimming?”

“No! Not today!” I answer, and just messing around, I ask him, “Why? Should we go swimming?”

“Yes! Go swimming! Now! Today! You need swim!” he replies back.

[Ooooookay, interesting, we think.] And we keep walking.
 
That’s when we see one of my bar girls sitting all by herself across the street. We go over to say hi to her, just for a second. [We seriously need to head back to get our groceries so we can catch this 5:00 bus.]
Excited to see me as always, she greets me with a hug. Then she lifts up my shirt, and exclaims,

"Where your bikini? You going swimming!”

And Nikki and I just about die laughing.
We don’t get it. Why? We’re wearing clothes. I’m wearing jeans. For the first time since we’ve been in Thailand, I’m wearing jeans. We are clearly not going swimming.
 
So, pretty sure that God just spoke to us through a high woman, a drunk man, and a prostitute, we decide that we should at least go walk along the beach and see what we hear Him saying.
 
So we get to the sand.

“Which way?” Nikki asks me.

“That way,” I reply immediately, pointing to the right.

And so we start walking.

We have no idea where we’re going.

No idea what we’re doing.

No idea.

We’re just walking, trying to convince ourselves that we don’t really have to swim right now.
 
But the farther we walk, the louder God gets.
And He keeps saying two things:

“Get in,” and “Are you gonna listen?”

Finally, Nikki stops walking, turns to me, and says,

“He just asked me if He needs to get a fish…and we need to turn around.”
 
Ok, fine. We’re going swimming. But where?
 
“Well, if we’re supposed to turn around, I might know where we’re supposed to go,” I tell her, “There was a little boy with floaties on swimming near where we started walking. I don’t know why, but I think we may be supposed to get in by him.”

“Blue and red floaties? Swimming alone?” she responds, “Yeah, that’s him, let’s go.”
 
So we walk back to where he was, thinking and praying. Wondering what this was all about. So we find him, set down our stuff, and get in the water.
 
“Ok, here we are, God. We’re swimming. In our clothes. By this kid. And we don’t know why. So if you wanna tell us, that would be great.”

And we wait. He tells us not to approach the kid. Just to stand nearby and keep an eye on him. So we do. That goes on for a good 20 minutes.
 
Then He tells instructs me, “Keep waiting, I’m gonna send you someone.”
 
[Alright, Papa. Waiting.]
 
One second later, I notice a man paddling past us.

“Hi!” I exclaim.

“He’s gonna talk to us,” I whisper to Nikki.

“Hi!” he answers back, “Where are you from?”

And we begin talking.

This man’s name is Ramin. He is from Iran. He is in his 30’s, unmarried, with no kids. He lives with his parents, has 5 brothers and sisters, and manages business. He is very intelligent. Very kind. Very respectful. And very hungry for the Gospel.
 
The conversation manifested itself. He’s a Muslim, but doesn’t really follow his religion. He’s fed up with his angry, wrathful god that is impossible to please.
 
So we got to tell him about our God. Our God who loves. Our God who forgives. Our God who sent His son Jesus to die for us, to take our punishment away…so we don’t have to be good enough, because He is.
 
We explained the whole Gospel to Ramin in the ocean that day.
And he was so enamored.
 
“Your God loves?” he just kept saying,

“That so much better.

So much better than my god.

I can’t believe I never knew.

Your God make so much sense.”
 
He was so intrigued. He asked so many questions. It was so good. He just kept repeating,
 
“Wow! Your God love!”
 
At one point, we thought we should tell him why we were swimming in our clothes, so we explained to him that we hadn’t planned on going swimming, but God told us to.
 
“Do you think we’re crazy?” Nikki asked.

“Why would I think you crazy?” he answered.

“Some people do,” we responded.

“Some people are crazy…but God tell you go swimming so you meet me, because God love me! See, I getting it! I learning!”
 
And he really was. We asked him if he could get ahold of a Bible in Iran. He wasn’t sure, but he said he was going to search out a Christian church and look into it. Then Nikki remembered that before she left, God had told her to bring an extra Bible with her for something like this.

“Do you read English?” she asked him.

“Yes, I read and write English,” he answered.

“I have a Bible for you!” and so we arranged to meet again that night to give him the Bible.

“I don’t know if I will be able to finish it, though,” was his concern.

“No, no, you can keep it! It’s a gift! If you want it,” we clarified.

 “Really!? A free gift? I am always interested in free gift…especially when free gift is Bible!”
 
And so we met again that night. Ramin was promptly on time, and we gave him the Bible. He was so excited. We took him to Starbucks, he bought us drinks, and we sat there and talked for hours. Again. His questions were pure, and just as in the ocean that day, he kept repeating, "Your God love. This so good. So much better than my god. Your God love."

Ramin is going to read that Bible. There is no doubt in my mind. 
Ramin is going to become a Christian. There is no doubt in my mind.
And Ramin is going to be a light to his family and his whole business. There is no doubt in my mind. 
The whole country of Iran is going to be affected by this guy that I got to share the Gospel with in the ocean the other day.

All because when God said to go swimming, we went swimming.

How cool is that?