God provides. Spiritually, emotionally and physically. And sometimes he does all three using bananas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S.  Just spelling out the word makes my mind go to Gwen Stefani’s song Hollaback Girl. I have no idea why.  It’s not even the best….or cleanest…song.  It must be my obsession with bananas.  Which is a real thing. I have at least a banana a day.  I love them. I freeze them. I put them in smoothies.  I mix them with chocolate. I put them in cereal. I eat banana chips. I am OBSESSED.

And after India and spending time with ServeTrust, I have an even greater obsession with them because God uses bananas to guide Leena to the people that He wants her to spend time with and share His love.

On one of our many 12+ hour days with Leena, we stopped on the side of the road…..for bananas. Leena instructed our driver to get a bunch of the small, sweet bananas that are her favorite and then we sat on the bus talking as a group about the day and all we had experienced that morning.  Leena was staring out the window… got up and walked off the bus… without saying anything to anyone.  She went to talk to a woman who was standing by the side of the road. After a few minutes she came back, wrote something on a piece of paper and then went back to talk to the woman. The woman hopped on the back of a tuk-tuk and Leena walked back up the stairs of our bus.

Imagine the six of us on the bus wondering what in the world just went down.  After a few minutes, one of us finally asked….well, what was all of that about?  Leena was like…’oh yeah, that woman….well, I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me to go talk to her.  So I went and asked her why she was on crutches.  I found out that she had polio as a child, her husband left her not long ago and she has several children to care for.  She has no income and no skills to make an income. So, I invited her into our sowing skills program and she’ll be there next week.’

Leena was so matter-of-fact about it all. The Spirit led her…. so she followed. Francis Chan would say that the Spirit called a play and then she ran it. Leena runs play after play after play.

I like to ask questions. Lots and lots of (sometimes annoying) questions.  So, I started asking how she finds the people and ministries that she has started. And nearly every answer began with…..’well, I stopped for some bananas’.  I smiled. Because I was remembering my own obsession with bananas. And I realized that the Spirit has an obsession with bananas too. He uses bananas to connect His people to His purpose.

My biggest take away from that bus ride?  Be open to the Holy Spirit and let Him lead. He can feed me spiritually, emotionally and physically. All I have to be is open to hearing Him and doing what He asks. It might be as easy as buying some bananas.  Given my obsession with bananas, He might be using me a lot.