Great Image Hair Salon

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday, team Selah & Bethesda traveled towards Atlanta and went into the most diverse town of America called Clarkston! We broke into groups of two for there to be multiple groups, so Shepherd and I decided to work together. We walked into a plaza with the most diverse stores ever… like I’m talking every store in the plaza was represented by a different culture! So after our initial prayer and getting ourselves ready to share the Word, Shepherd felt a pull to go into a random hair salon. We saw one immediately and I, being more reserved than Shepherd, was like I am not getting my haircut right now! So I said let’s walk around a bit more to feel this place out. We stumble upon an international grocery store called Thrift Town that brought in a variety of different cultures. We began talking with a worker who was cleaning mold off of the floor, so we got her attention and asked if she needed any help. Her response was “we don’t speak english on Saturday” and she left immediately. I then considered the fact that we were two males cornering a younger woman and realized it was very intimidating for her, so we decided to leave the store to not cause any problems.

We decided to keep walking around the plaza and Shepherd again mentioned the hair salon idea, and I was still very hesitant, but realized it was where God was calling us to go and spend our time. We walked into the hair salon and quickly realized none of the workers spoke english, as it was primarily a Vietnamese hair salon. There was college football blasting and a bunch of people were talking in Vietnamese. I was so caught off guard about the language barrier because I’m very uncultured, so when Shepherd was like let’s just buzz and bleach our hair, I was like what on earth are you talking about…

I considered it for a minute and realized how I worried more about my hair than talking with these people about Jesus and teaching them the Gospel. So, with much probbing from Shepherd;) I did buzz and bleach my hair. I laughed while they were cutting all my hair off because I was losing all my prized hair… and I was still alive. I don’t need my hair to praise the Lord. HELLO. Are you willing to give up parts of your physical appearance to serve the Lord? I was not, until Shepherd pushed me into the right mindset.

Now during the buzz&bleach frenzy, I was certainly not going to waste this opportunity to share the Good News. My barber’s name was Wong, he was born in Vietnam and moved pretty recently to America. I don’t recommend trying to communicate with someone while they are cutting your hair through google translate. First of all, he’s not even focusing on your hair, but the phone I’m shoving in his face to read. What he was reading off my phone was the only thing I cared about him seeing, for it was the Good News. Second, he was trying to process all this while I was moving around in my seat rapidly typing away. I made sure the message got across that God, the only Father, loves him more than anything else could. He seemed to only brush it off and I kept telling him over and over again. 

There was another lady named Kayla, who could speak broken english. While my hair was being heated under the alien looking thing that warmed my head, I was praying over the building and Kayla took notice. She asked me “Are you praying?” while cutting a randoms persons hair and I could not get up to share God’s word with her so I started praying with more purpose and passion. I replied “yes” to her question and knew I had to speak to her (I was strapped into this weird heating contraption and she was like ten feet across the building cutting someone else’s hair). Wong came over and saved me from the heating machine that was starting to melt my brain (at least it felt like it was) and I started to communicate with him the love Jesus has once again. 

Then another woman, who I did not get the name of, came over to get the bleach stuff out of my hair, and while she was legit spraying water all over my head, I was yet again frantically typing away on google translate to get Jesus to this woman. I asked her what she needed prayer for under Jesus’s name and she responded with “everything!” It turns out Kayla was Catholic, so we asked her to take Wong to church and had her promise she would! Shepherd and I planted a seed in that business and covered the whole place with God’s blessing!

Join me in praying for the workers, Wong and Kayla, and customers of Great Image Hair Salon and all the people who step foot into the building. Though they don’t practice Christianity, they are now aware of the love God has for them and that they don’t have to live a life with shame when it’s a life with God. What a treat it was for Shepherd and I to share the message of Good News. We received a simple, temporary haircut, but Great Image Hair Salon received the glory of the kingdom and God’s eternal blessing! I hope this blog brought encouragement to you and have a restful Sabbath!

Blessings on this Beautiful Sabbath

Shepherd & I after our time with Great Image Hair Salon:)