As many of you know, at training camp last October I was asked to to be one of the 3 logistics coordinators for my squad this year. As many of you also know, this was almost comical and a paradoxical situation due to the fact that I have never worked a logistics position in my life, and am not exactly the most organized person on the face of the earth.
To say the least, I didn’t feel like I was ready for this position, yet oddly enough, I wasn’t nervous except for one thing – getting the squad into China. I had heard “horror” stories about past squads being held up at customs, visas being denied, etc. when it came to crossing into China and the task seemed very daunting, especially to someone like me who had ZERO experience.
But I still said yes, and for the first 4 months of the trip logistics proved to be a load of ups, downs, humbling situations, which required me to ask for grace, and a few victories along the way. Logistics was a whirlwind, but my two partners in crime Melissa and Kailey made it fun, and I felt as though I learned a lot about deadlines, responsibility, organization, trust in the Lord, flexibility, and so many other lessons that it would take me a while to explain them all.
When month 4 rolled around (India) the three of us got an email from leadership telling us that the plan to get into China was to take a private tour through Tibet and into the mainland. While we were all going to work on this they wanted a point person to volunteer as the main contact for the travel agency and to take on the initial steps for the Chinese visa process. At first, I didn’t say anything. This was the exact position I did NOT want to be put in and actually did not want anything to do with. To be honest, it embarrasses me to say I was actually scared of taking on that task. However, the Lord convicted me of that fear very quickly and it wasn’t long before I found myself sending an email back to the states volunteering myself to be the point person for the Chinese visas and the Tibetan tour.
It’s funny how when we completely trust in him, the Lord takes the fears we have and makes them look the size of a grain of sand compared to the shadow of his wing. And that’s what I tried my best to do. There were a tons of emails, a lot of details, a few mistakes, some miscommunications, a toilet paper bag filled with cash, and passports stacks wider than my hand could carry, but about a month and a half later we found ourselves completely approved for entry into China, and were preparing to leave for Tibet.
A couple nights before we left for China, 3 of my leaders pulled me out of a session at debrief in order to have a conversation with me. They told me I didn’t do anything wrong, nor did I fail to meet the requirements for a logistics coordinator, but they had prayed about it and felt that it was time for me to step out of the logistics position and give up the role for the remainder of the trip. Honestly, at first I was a bit surprised. I didn’t see that coming. But the more I thought about it the more I realized what a good decision that was.
I have loved logistics. I feel like I have learned so much about practically traveling the world and am so thankful to be in this role, but as I prayed about it I felt like the Lord had a bigger lesson for me to learn – trust and release of fear and anxiety. I truly believe I did what the Lord wanted me to do in this position by trusting in him and helping our squad get to China.
So, concerning logistics, I wanted to tell everyone that I will no longer be in the logistics position for my squad and I am completely at peace with that. I am very excited to see what the Lord has for me throughout the rest of this trip and am so thankful to have held that position for the first 5 months.
