I don't have my cell phone..ok so I can't find my cell phone. Umm..I don't have my cell phone I think I left it on the bus! This is what I was saying the morning we arrived at the airport in Nicaragua, We had gotten up at 3am to bus it to Managua to fly out to LA. We arrived around 5am and as the bus was pulling away I realized I couldn't find my phone. I mentioned this to Nate, a very ambitious teammate, and he was on it! We tried calling the guy that hooked us up with the bus but it's 5am! Then someone said, hey that bus is one we took to Granada so it's probably at the Huembas bust station so Nate, the ambitious one, said let's go! We got permission, hopped in a taxi dragging Noah along for the ride and took off to the station. I kind of knew my way since I had lived 5 minutes from the airport for 2 weeks. We got there and waited and no bus. I prayed and we sang worship songs and I came to the realization that I would not be getting my phone back. I prayed for the person that found it, that they could use the money when they sold it. I was also surrendering it to the Lord as a lesson that I needed to learn to not hold on too tightly to anything that may be an idol in my life and I was feeling ok with it! Bummed of course as it has a lot of valuable stuff on it, like photos and apps and such, but also at peace with it. As we were getting back into the taxi I received a call from our squad leader Carly informing me that it was a false alarm that one of my prankster teammates had my phone!! So I was then flooded with so many more emotions knowing that I hadn't lost it! I know how Jesus felt when he found that lost sheep now!! We were able to pray for our taxi driver and his health as we were rushing back to catch the plane! I still owe some payback to my teammate haha!
That same morning some of our Nicaraguan friends came to say goodbye, only they came late and we had 3 minutes to say final goodbyes and I realized how cool God's divine encounters really are! From one small town in Wisconsin to one small town in Nicaragua or any country for that matter and our worlds collide! Pretty cool! After the sad goodbyes and stressful morning I went up to wait at the gate and all of sudden up walks ROB BRYANT! ha ha! He was in Nicaragua checking out a contact for YWAM and just "happened" to be flying out the same time I was! I was so hyper and giddy, God is in the details! Keep praying for those divine encounters! I ended that hectic day by visiting with Brook and Miriam in LA and it was aweome, too short but a major encouragement. The Lord loves to bless us!
It's difficult to go through these initial emotions when something happens to us. My Dad is always, yes always quoting to me, what happens to you is less important than how you handle what happens to you and I feel this is so true. If I had freaked out just to realize it was a false alarm, my dependence on the Lord would not be shown. My desire to give it all up to serve the Lord would not be true, and I would not have grown. God puts us to the test not to bring us down but to bring us closer to him! I find myself in these false alarm type situations a lot and each time God pulls through.
