The following is a blog I wrote on January 7.
Upon going to bed on January 2nd, I thought I had a full day of rest the next day. I really did not want to do anything all day. I found out that I was wrong when molly came in before I fell asleep to tell me that we were leaving tomorrow night. I thought ‘okay find by me. I will just spend the day differently’.
The thing about the World Race is that things change daily(sometimes hourly). I woke up the next morning at 9:00am. I ate breakfast and was slowly getting moving. I was told at 10:00 that we had a team meeting. I hadn’t even gotten dressed. I went to the courtyard of WYAM to find out that my team was leaving at noon now. All I thought about was I have 2 hours to do all the things I had wanted to do. We had a quick orientation on China and how to get to our location. Part of the instructions for us was to pray for an angel. It was 11:30 when we finished and as a team we decided to leave at 1:00.
I ran out of the courtyard in panic. I had to get cash out of the team account to pay for our train tickets. Thankfully, Krystal volunteered to do this for me. I ran upstairs and felt the same way that I did the day I left Wyoming. I was overwhelmed. I had a quick cry to pull myself together. I got my debit cards with pin numbers to Krystal. It has become a normal thing to give my cards to another team member to get cash out when in a pickle. I then packed. Packing to go into China was different from most places. I was going to leave a lot behind because we were going to our first and only cold climate of the year. WYAM had thankfully helped us out by letting us keep some of our things in Hong Kong. I got packed and ran to the internet to check my bank account balances. I got my bag and my computer put in storage. I got my money from Krystal to pay for my train tickets.
After out squad prayed over us and good-byes were said, we were off. The whole day is so amazing now that I look back on it. We got on buses having no clue where we were going. We prayed a lot that angles would show up and help us out. God directed us all day long. He put people in our paths to get us to the border and then to the train station. Even when we were in China and I only had Hong Kong dollars, the bus allowed us to pay in the wrong currency.
The last bus ride was the best part of the day. I kept praying that someone would help us out. We got to our town for the train station and had to get into a random van. At this point, I was skeptical that we were in the right place. The six of us(my teammates) were talking about not knowing where we were going. All of a sudden an angle by the name of Carol showed up. She was sitting next to Colleen. She started talking to us and offered to help. She helped us find a hotel that was in our budget, praise God, and helped Danny and Kyle find a taxi. Carol could have not said anything at all, but God definitely placed here there for us.
The next day we boarded our train. The train ride was 30 hours and we were told that someone would be waiting for us. When we arrived in our city, no one was there. Danny decided to have the girls wait at KFC, while Kyle and he went to figure out what happened. Danny got in contact with our contact to find a place to stay. We arrived at the hostel to drop our things off and find a place to eat. Danny was in the lead and suggested a restaurant. We walked in to find other missionaries from the town. We talked to them for about 15 minutes and were invited to church the next day.
The next morning, we waited outside our hostel for the people for the previous night to show up. We were praying that this would work out since we had no idea where our contact was at. I prayed that whole way to church that God would work out all our plans for the next two weeks. God was totally in control because at church, we had many people come up and talk to us. One of those people was our contact. We all smiled and laughed at how God worked out everything for us to be at that service. We had people offer us a place to stay and met some of out our World Racer’s friends.
God has been all over our time so far here in China. God is so amazing and He shows up at the right time. We only have to be patient and wait for him.
Now that I look back at the experience back in Hong Kong, I am still amazed. My view of God has changed since that day. It is the first time I have experienced truly how God shows up and provides for us in ways that we don’t even know. Thank you Lord for all that you do every day.
