Purple Couch

Yesterday, we had an ATL ministry morning. For those of you unfamiliar with this (me being one), it stands for Ask The Lord. You literally pray and ask God what he wants you to do and where he wants you to go during the time set aside.

With that introduction, we split into groups and began to pray. My group started with individual prayer.
Ok God, I said. I have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm sure hoping you do.
Nothing.
Really God? Something? Anything???
And finally, randomly, completely unexpected, God told me "purple couch."
Well, really more burgandy.
WHAT??? Are you serious God?? Maybe one person in twenty here owns a couch. We don't even have a couch! How am i supposed to find a couch, let alone a PURPLE one????
Well, really more burgandy.

So then we all shared. My teammates wanted to visit with the fruit stand lady down the street and build up a relationship there, and then to talk to the older woman up the street we met about a month back and never saw again. I told them that if either of them had a purple couch, I'd be a happy camper.

And so we headed out.
We talked to the fruit stand lady for a while (her name is rosa). I peered in behind her to look into her house. No couch.
We continued on our way.
Stopping by the old lady's house, we sang songs, cleaned up her backyard, and prayed for her son with a fractured back. No couch.
Daisy, a girl from church stopped by to read Psalms. I thought in my head how I could ask if she had a purple couch.
We continued walking.
Down the road, we were stopped by a woman from one of the churches we visit. She invited us in, and we sat and talked with her, her granddaughter, and her great granddaughter. Completely unexpectedly, she told us her cancer had relapsed. We prayed for her, and for the treatment she was about to undertake. It's strange, how God put us on that road. We had no idea where that woman lived. We had no idea that she even would remember us. But in that moment, I was glad God had brought us there.
After that stop, we decided to head back.
No purple couch.
Then, at the top of the hill, in a red house, a man known between us as the "Hallelujah" Man, but otherwise called Marco, called out to us. And so we joined him on his porch. He spoke a bit of English, and we listened as he told us stories in a mix of Spanglish.
I had given up on finding a purple couch.
Then, he invited us in.
Into his house. To sit on his couches.
His two purple couches.
Well, really more burgandy.