Yellow House

     One day we were getting ready for door to door evangelism, and we prepared by doing listening prayers. During a listening prayer, it’s all about you asking God for specific things & being willing to sit still and be quiet to listen for His voice. We prayed for words or phrases that would better direct and guide us to where the Lord needed us to go. I prayed and instantly got the words “Yellow House.” Now at first I was a bit hesitant to share with the group, due to fear of what others may think. I also hadn’t done much listening and activation prayers because I’m used to being the one who’s always talking and never listening. Which I quickly realized isn’t the way God intended, because like all successful relationships it works both ways and it’s never one sided. In my mind I thought, “this is crazy and there’s no way God told me yellow house. There’s probably no yellow houses, I probably just made that up.” But before I could even stop myself, I spoke up and told the group my phrase was “yellow house.” We walked to a very poor village near by & when we arrived everyone was out of breath from the steep hills we took to get there. A squad mate pointed out that off in the distance at the top of the hill was a yellow house, and he said “That’s it! That’s your yellow house!” Now selfish me was like, “no way God!! That’s a huge hill we already had a long walk to get here, isn’t there a yellow house here at the bottom??” I looked around and realized, nope that was the only yellow house in sight. Another squad mate rounded the corner saying, “there’s the house let’s get to walking!” By that point I was like, “alright God, I get it we will go.” It was a very steep gravel road that led to the house, but once we reached the top we knocked on the door and no one answered. Again I am frustrated at God because not only did I not want to climb the huge hill but now no one is even home. I realized really quickly how selfish that was and prayed for the Lord to fix my heart posture. We began to pray over the house and whatever may be going on in the house or with the people for the Lord to lead us there. After praying, we look across the street to a woman standing in her front yard with a baby on her hip. And guess what?! Her house was also yellow! We walk over and begin to conversation with her about her faith. She opens up quickly and speaks pretty good English which is amazing to find in a primarily Spanish speaking country and since I can’t speak much Spanish. She talks of her dedication to the Lord and how she gave her life to Jesus at the age of 15. She explains how thankful she is that we came across her because she has been seeking others to pray with her over her parents who are both alcoholics and nonbelievers. During her childhood she said she experienced a great deal of pain with both parents struggling with addiction, but through it all she sought after Jesus. As a married woman with a small child, she said despite her parents she clings to the verse, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” We prayed with her and for her & gave praise towards her dedication to her church and raising a family with God as the center. We then asked about the yellow house across the street, which she goes on to tell us the household definitely needs Jesus. She said the family also needs prayer over addiction and that Satan is very present there. She stressed over and over they need lots of Jesus! We went back to the house and prayed again with better direction & guidance provided by the Lord through the neighbor. As we walked down the big hill from both houses, I realized… The Lord doesn’t call us to comfortable situations. He loves to make us uncomfortable so we can step out in faith and trust him fully. He also wants us to be interruptible for any and all moments when he needs a vessel. Although it was uncomfortable and took a little extra effort to get to those houses, the Lord revealed not only one yellow house but two! God definitely was the one to speak those words to me, and I am so proud I stepped out in faith and was interruptible because in that the Lord used me and my team as a vessel to carry his light to those yellow houses. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Pray specifically that the Lord will continue to speak clearly even throughout the language barrier! 

                                                    Much love,

                                                             -Erika Talley 
•I picked this flower on the walk back to keep pressed in my Bible as a reminder of the day the Lord spoke the words “Yellow House” to me and how powerful this time was.