All In God's Timing

After traveling an unexpected 28 hours on a total of 3 flights we have made it to our final destination at 430am on January 4th. Or part of or team has. Four of us are still in Toronto at the airport waiting for a stand by flight that isn't a guarantee until 8pm tonight Toronto time. But as a clear reminder to all of us and everyone reading, we live on God's time, even if we try to live on our own. It is obvious that God wasn't ready to let us go, and that He had a better plan for us. This is quite humbling. And is a great reminder that God can work in many ways. So our 1.5 hour flight delay from Minneapolis airport to Toronto, led to a missed connecting flight to the Middle East and a rerouted flight for 11 of us to London, while the last 4 of our group waited in Canada for another stand by flight. However, there is always a reason for God changing our own plans, and if it weren't for our first delay I wouldn't have met a man named Luther, from a small town in Minnesota. Luther is a guy who just happened to be sitting in the seat next to me on the way to Toronto. First off cool name, I don't know any other people named Luther. But second, Luther is a peace corps volunteer who was home for the holidays and is now flying back to his placement country. Coincidence? I think not. Pretty sure God had that one planned out since the get-go. Luther is actually in his last 6 months of service, teaching English in Kyrgyzstan. He hopes to plan and stay another year as this has become a big part of his life. "The peace corps will be the most challenging job you'll ever love"....well isn't that cool haha. For me it really is :) Luther and I also had an amazing conversation about God. Without knowing he was a Christian I started to explain that the reason I applied for the peace corps is because I feel as though God is calling me to go. To depend on Him alone. To give my trust completely to Him. We had a great chat about our beliefs and about sharing with other peace corps volunteers, ultimately becoming stronger in our own faith as well. A discussion about how following Jesus isnt about feelings or emotions, but about having a personal relationship with Him. Recently I have been struggling with knowing if the peace corps is the calling God has for me, but after talking to Luther I'd had to have been blind to not see the sign God had placed directly in front of me. I know you cannot live on signs, but I am definitely someone who looks for them, probably too often. I had such a comfort when getting off that plane, I wasn't even frustrated with the fact that we were now going to potentially be sitting in the airport for a day before they could get us on a flight. God has reasons for everything, and we need to trust His plan more than our own.

So eventually we made it to our final destination. We sat in the London airport for awhile and then boarded a plane that took us 3 hours to the Middle East. I've always been very blessed with the ability to sleep anywhere, so again on the flight I conked out and slept for the full plane ride. Then before I knew it we were getting off the plane, in a country I have never been. One with a completely new culture, a culture with the absence of Jesus as the Savior. Ready for a new adventure. Ready to learn. Ready to share the Hope that I have been given.

#middleeast