The Adventures Of ATL

Before we even set foot in Armenia, my team took the rest of our time in Georgia to pray about what the Lord wanted us to do. We knew we’d be doing more ATL (ask the Lord) and we would not have a specific ministry host. This doesn’t mean we won’t be doing ministry, but we’re letting the Holy Spirit lead us in everything. We prayed about what our team would go through, and overall what this month would look like. Somethings we got as we prayed were:

1. Red hat

2. Rolling hills

3. Overlooking a city

4. An older man with a staff 

5. “Turk” 

6. Stay 

7. Someone jumping into a swimming pool 

8. Country (rural) 

With ATL, things can get pretty crazy you might not know exactly what you’re doing when you get to your destination. You might relocate after a week or meet someone “randomly” and build a friendship with them. 9/10 times everything is unknown and you truly throw all planning out the window. The second we arrived in Armenia, this was no exception. 

As we pulled into the train station in the morning, I was able to see the beautiful landscapes and was getting excited to explore! But first, we had to find a place to stay. We were having a hard time booking anything before we left Tbilisi, Georgia. After a few days of checking multiple booking sites with no luck, we decided we would find something when we got into Yerevan (the capital).

Unfortunately we forgot that we were supposed to have somewhere booked before arrival. My team and I realized this after an 8-hour overnight train as we sat in the train station looking for somewhere to stay. And we were still unable to find anything. Welp,  we were officially homeless with no SIM cards and no translator. 

Part of us sat on the side of the road behind the hotel while we waited for our squad leader to finish talking to the hotel manager.

My squad leader, team leader, and I reached out to everyone we could find on AirBnB, but we weren’t getting any responses. There was one hotel we decided to take a taxi to just to see if they would let us stay. When we got there we found out they were booked, so we found another hotel that we could try. We went across town again to see if there was any room at the Inn. It was over budget, but they had a room so we had a place to stay. 

While we waited we were praying and listening to worship music. At this point we still weren’t sure if we had a place to stay. 

My team and I had started looking for lodging around 8 AM and we finally had a place to stay around 1 PM. It was an adventure, but after prayer and trusting the Lord, He provided. I have been doing ATL for around 3 months now and the Lord has shown me countless times how He provides. It’s been sweet to trust Him fully and see how He shows up, even if it’s what feels like last minute. 

We have been in Armenia for around a week now and after continued prayer we all heard the Lord say that we were supposed to stay. So we are staying in the capital, Yerevan, with our main focus being on the team and finding some sort of a routine. 

 ATL looks different every day, we have found ourselves going to the same coffee shops to build relationships with people. Another word we received from the Lord was consistency.

We’ve also been able to go to coffee shops, parks, and different spots around town to do ministry. As we step into more ministry, my team has been connected with two groups to serve and pour into. 

What does ATL look like at a coffee shop? Well it can look like prophetic painting(painting an image the Lord gives you, to give to someone) or simply spending time with the Lord. It can be praying or doing a Bible study, whatever we do we are always interruptible.

Please pray for us as we get ready to hopefully work with CREW and/or a church we found here.