“I’ve already had a Unsung Heroes month…. This should be easy.”… That was the exact thought I had riding on the bus from Riga, Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia. Unsung Heroes is a time when have no set ministry and seek to find new ones to partner with.. Having no ministry host also means no minstry site to stay. I was so sure that it was in the bag. We found somewhere to stay and feed us within budget before we got to South Africa the last time I was a part of UH and we had an awesome month of growing, learning, and loving.
We pulled into the bus station and the wind sends a chill down my spine… being this close to the ocean meant a colder month than the last. Smiles on our faces, we headed over to the bus stop to find the hostel we had found for our first night. We picked up our things and started joking about feeling like real racers wearing our packs on our backs, daypacks on the front, and constantly apologizing for accidentally hitting someone with all of our stuff. Everything for a year being carried around on our backs. Asking a stranger how to cross the street when we got off a bus with all our baggage, he pointed to an underground tunnel and we went on our way. We came across the hostel and hoped that we would be able to bargain for a month’s stay with our whole budget… Unfortunately we are in a touristy city in the middle of a busy season with a budget that is less than half of what they charge and staying there wasn’t God’s plan.
We woke up the next morning with hope in our hearts and faith that God had something for us. No one panicked or worried. We all had a strange calm that the Lord had a plan and we just needed to follow his path set out before us. So we started walking and asking… We went into a Christian cafe that gave us cheap amazing food, wonderful conversation, and some advice for a place to stay. Slowly the hours ticked by and we just kept walking, talking, and asking. We asked churches, we asked theology schools, hostels, and anything we could think of. We just prayed and kept walking. Soon enough it was 9:00pm and we still had no where to stay and our stuff sitting in the office of a hostel we couldn’t afford. We were homeless in Europe. And yet, we had no worries.
We were in God’s hands and all we had to do was pray and trust.
Finally, Andrea and I decided to walk back to the Christian cafe, hope they might still be there and see if we could get any other advice from them… or maybe a floor. Triin, one of the girls that works there, laughed and said, “You have camping gear, right?” We quickly replied with a resounding “Yes!” and soon enough we were getting a ride to her house to camp in her backyard. Hammocks in the trees and tents popped up, and we got a night’s rest that felt more like training camp than any day of the race so far. We were amazed at the beautiful generosity of Triin and her father: they made us feel at ease, and even made us breakfast in the morning. We got up early the next day and travelled back into the city with Triin, confident today was the day the Lord was going to give us a permanent place to lay our heads.
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in name of the Lord our God.” Psalms 20:7
After free coffee from the cafe and praying over the day, we found a park, dropped our packs, and sat in a circle wondering how the day would go. After resting and spending some time with the Lord, we split up around the city, exhausting the possibilities that we had recommended to us. We asked more churches, a cathedral, a convent, a methodist church, couch surfing websites, yoga studios… And we were having no luck. Emry, the guy who owns The Livingroom, the Christian cafe we found, gave us multiple people to contact and even called a few himself to help us out. We were dumbfounded by the amount of help we were getting from the cafe and even our squaddmates. Other teams were asking their contacts, calling hostels for us, researching just as we were. We felt so loved and supported that our faith never had room to falter.
A couple of our teammates had gone to look at university dorms but had trouble finding them, so a Katie Kuehn, Sareece, and myself decided to give it one last try because it seemed like we might be able to afford it. We set out towards the campus with high hopes and strong faith. Getting close to the campus and decided to go down an alley towards what we thought was where the dormitories could be found….
We hit a dead end. And then Katie noticed a sign that read ‘Backpackers’. We looked closer and it was the United Backpacker’s Hostel, one I had run across but thought would be completely out of our price range. We decided to go up and see what prices were like and if there was any possibilities.
As we stood waiting in the beautiful lobby, we kept remarking that this place was way too nice to be in a missionaries budget. As we waited for someone to come to the empty front desk, we decided we should leave and try again on our way back from the dorms. But the Lord had other plans… As soon as we turned to leave, the receptionist walked up and asked how she could help. We started explaining our situation and she said it sounded like we needed to talk to the manager. Anita walked up the stairs remarked that she thought we were already staying there and we all chuckled. We explained our story and our budget… And she asked if we could wait to talk to the owner. We looked at each other and held our breath as she explained that they had a large room they rarely used and had mattresses for the floor that might be a possibility. We waited for 30 minutes and the owner arrived smiling and, little did we know, already positive we could stay there. He showed us around and asked if it would be alright…. Is this alright?! It was more than we could ever ask for.
We started laughing and felt the joy of the Lord fill us… we knew this was a divine appointment.
The three of us left the hostel with the biggest smiles and the biggest hope. God had tested us and we pulled through. We stayed strong in our faith and knew He would provide.
When we got back to the rest of our team, we found out that they had found a place as well! 2 PLACES! God provided an over abundance. All we had to do was trust in His timing and not our own.
Long story short we decided on the hostel and are finally settling in for our first full night’s rest.
He gave us food. He gave us shelter. He gave us support.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than good, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ” Matthew 6:25-26
#nolongerhomelessineurope #godprovides
