I always hear people use the phrase "God's hands were all over it" and I just shake my head or smile and think thats neat. I never really experienced it in a big, eye opening kind of way. Until this week. As we prepare for our mission trip I have seen it several times. I want to blog it so that I will not forget it!
Ryan is going to be working on water pumps or something like that. The pumps the Nicaraguans had got stolen, so we were asked to buy new pumps. Long story short, random people have come through and purchased all three of the pumps that our team needs. (These aren't cheap, like several hundred each I believe) So what was reallllly good and exciting!!
Next Ryan specifically prayed to God that we would raise around $300-$400, so we could buy toys and extra things to leave in Nicaragua, after like only 3 days we had over $500! Can we say God listens??
Our team leader has told Ryan over and over again how different this project is already from any of the normal eMi projects. What he means is when they picked Ryan for this trip they didn't reallly need a mechanical engineer but they would find something for Ryan and I to do, now they have been needing Ryan ALOT for help with these pump things! So it turned out perfect that he is on this particular project after all!
As for me. Well I have been a bit of a worry wart about this whole trip. The other day we finally got our packet in the mail with our itinerary and some additional information. One packet had some advice that was exactly what I needed to hear to know that I am not alone in how I felt about this trip...Here is what is said, "As the time draws nearer, you are likely to realize just how inconvenient the timing of your trip actually is. In addition to the pressures of leaving your ordinary commitments, you may also experience the spiritual warfare of discougement, distractions, and doubt that seem to make this a particulary bad time to go.
You are in a very real battle against a very real enemy who wants to destroy your commitment to this mission trip" Let me tell you, the devil was winning BIG TIME! I was so nervous that I couldn't even begin to be excited about the trip.
Lately when I think about the trip all I think is what if I get sick, or get sick when I get back from the trip. These thoughts have been CONTROLLING me. Until last night. God finally opened my eyes to the VERY obvious fact that this trip IS. NOT. ABOUT. ME!! I replaced all my visions of getting sick with visions of helping and playing with Nicaraguan children. I started thinking about all the awesome things God is doing in a different part of the country that I am going to get to be a part of. I also started remembering that so what if stuff goes bad?? God is there and we as Christians are called to Go.
Long post. Lots to say. More to come I am sure!!
