A few months ago I wrote the blog: It’s hard being the only one, where I detailed the struggles I went through in Cambodia about being the only Brit on the race. I began to question why God had even called me on the race as the only Brit, if he had made some kind of mistake and I wasn’t cut out for this. I even considered calling it a day and heading home. It was easy to think that I wasn’t really making a different to the Fusion Squad.
Well over the last two months God has come up trumps – he has reaffirmed my position on the squad over and over again. I now have full confidence in what God was doing when he decided I would be the only person from Europe on the squad – although some of these plans he is yet to reveal to me.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Confirmation One:
It all started at our debrief in Cambodia, we spent one day with F Squad who were also debriefing in Phnom Penh, they were at the end of month eight, we were just finishing up month two. The first girl I talked, Linda, asked me how I had heard about the race. I mentioned my friend, Pete, from university had done the race in September 2011. It turned out that Pete had been Linda’s ministry contact when she was in Malaysia in December. Having been reminded of Pete, I sent him a message and it turned out that very same day Pete became a father.
Lesson One:
God puts people on your heart at the right time.
Confirmation Two:
Arriving in Da Nang, Vietnam for month three we were met at the bus station by our contact, Ha, and her husband Ash. It turned out that Ash was from England and Ha had been to school there. For the whole month I got to hear a British accent every day. I was able to talk about creme eggs to someone who understood the pain of not having one on Easter and I got to have a tonne of rugby banter.
Lesson Two:
God places people in your life right when you need them
Confirmation Three:
One night in Vietnam we went out for dinner with a few people from iCan. One of Ash’s friends from home who was in Vietnam at the time also came along. As we were talking it turned out that he was currently living in Bournemouth and when I mentioned I had a good friend involved in a church down there he asked which one. It turned out that they go to the same church and that he was at this person’s wedding last year and so was I.
Lesson Three:
The world is smaller than it seems sometimes.
Confirmation Four:
When I found out where I would be going in China, I noticed that my contact was mutual friends with my friend who had done the race back in 2011. It turned out that she was his contact for his month in China too – even though I am at a different location to where he was.
Lesson Four:
God had my race planned out before I even knew about the World Race.
None of these meetings were by coincidence, they were God planned encounters, designed to help me put more faith and trust in him. The worst thing about this was that I found myself telling God that he had shown me enough, that I ‘got’ it, this was his plan all along and that he didn’t need to reveal anything else to me.
But really this is just the beginning, I love seeing how God had my race mapped out way ahead of me. How he knew the people he would put in my path to send me sweet reminders of home. How he has used the one person I knew who had done the race and was the reason I heard about the race to reaffirm my place on Fusion. How he gave me what I needed when I needed it.
*After writing and posting this blog, God showed me that there was more, that he was going to continue to show me just how intricate his plan is. Today was my last day at the foster home in China where we have been all month so as I was saying goodbye to some of the other volunteers here and making sure we had contacts details for each other, it turned out that I had a mutual friend with the Brit who was also here. Her boyfriend is best friends with one of my really good friends from university and they know each other well. More over, I got blessed with British products like Triple Velvet toilet paper, Cadbury’s hot chocolate, body shop aloe lotion, Aussie conditioner! I am in awe of his goodness!
He is a faithful, loving and compassionate God and I am his child.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
