When does God show up? Is it when you
fall down into the street when you’re a kid and a car swerves to miss
you? Is it when a baby is being born? Does He show up when you pray
really really hard for something, or maybe while just drinking some
coffee in the morning? The answer is yes and no. Our Father in Heaven
is always watching out for His creation and especially His children,
and we don’t have to look very hard to see Him. God has been showing
me recently how He does His best work when we surrender control and
hope in Him. Let me tell you about Odessa.
It’s my team’s last few days in
Vulcanesti, Moldova, and we decide we need some R&R after a
grueling month with team unification and ministry. Vulcanesti
happened to be only a few miles from the Ukrainian border and Odessa
was only a few hours drive into Ukraine, so we decided to give it a
shot, except we didn’t have any plans on how to get there or where
we’d stay once we did. However, we found out there was a bus that
traveled from Vulcanesti to a town right across the Ukrainian border
from which we could catch another bus to Odessa. So at 7:00 am we
boarded a bus to this small town. Now we have no plans, so we prayed
God would take care of everything somehow. When we got to the
Ukrainian border, the border military decided six Americans needed to
be questioned…great. We were each individually interrogated on what
work we did in America, how much we made, why we were going to
Odessa, how many beaches Odessa had, how much money we had in our
pockets, what kind of toothpaste we used (Kacie is asked this
everywhere she goes because she has abnormally white teeth). So after
an hour of holding us and the entire bus up we finally by God’s grace
made it through the border without even having to pay one cent, but
there was a catch. They didn’t stamp Faith’s passport, which you’ll
find out later wasn’t such a fair thing to have done. But the bus
made it to this town at the border and we tried to buy tickets for
the bus to Odessa, but we needed Ukrainian money first. The driver of
the first bus turned out to be a God send who took to helping us out.
He took us to a local market at the bus stop where a random shop
seller would exchange our money for us, second God send. There was a
bus to Odessa that left at 10:00 AM, but by the time we got there it
had already sold out, so we were forced to wait until 1:30 PM, which
was a welcomed relief to just sit and relax in the sun. Our bus ride
to Odessa was smooth and uneventful, but upon arriving in Odessa we
were dropped off at a random bus stop with out any direction. There
was no taxis around so we didn’t know what to do. While standing
around talking, a man who was standing there mentioned he spoke
english and he could help, third God send. We were looking for a
taxi, but none were showing up. After a minute though a random small
unmarked van pulls up and the man speaks to the driver to get us to
the address of a hostel we had found online before leaving
Vulcanesti, but never contacted. We pulled up to the right address,
and after looking for the hostel for 10 minutes we found the door
which had a sign literally the size of a post it note…nice. Turns
out though that the hostel manager is an awesome guy from California
who put down all he was doing to help us out, and by the grace of God
they had 6 beds left for the night, 4th and 5th
God send. Nick, the manager, then took us out to dinner at a sweet
Ukrainian restaurant and then on a personal tour of the city, which
was amazing. Natalie and I raced down and up some famous steps in
Odessa. It took us two minutes at a running pace, so you can tell
there were a lot of steps. The next day we decided to wake up early
and get bus tickets back just to make sure, and then we could walk
around the city and see the Black Sea. We booked tickets for 5:30 PM
just trusting that it would somehow work out once we got to that town
at the border again. After enjoying a beautiful day walking around
Odessa seeing the Black Sea and an open air market, we hopped on our
bus back. The bus ride was once again uneventful and we arrived at
the border town at around 10:00 PM, and everything had shut down. The
bus station was closed, the shops were closed, the street lights were
only scarcely on, I think I saw a black cat crawl under a ladder and
break a mirror, so yeah it wasn’t looking good. But while standing in
front of the bus a man walks up and asks if we need a taxi around the
town. We told him no, and on a whim he asks if we need to go to
Vulcanesti across the border, boom! Thanks God! All six of us pile
into his small car and he drives us to the border. Remember Faith’s
passport? When we get to the border they calls us out of the car to
question us, but there is nothing to say. They told us we had a
problem, but that’s it and sent us back to the car. After waiting for
about 45 minutes our driver comes back to the car passports in hand
and says we owe him another $10 because he had to pay the border
military, but we can go on through. We make it through the Ukrainian
border and Moldovan border no more problems. God showed up again that
night as while driving through Vulcanesti the driver mentions how
having five people in the back is not ok with the Moldovan police and
we might get in trouble, and no sooner does he say it that we see a
police man next to his car, but as we pull up to him he turns and
looks into his car and we pass by unnoticed. Thanks God! Basically
God showed up a bunch for us on this trip and it’s all because we put
our trust in Him, and this was only a fun weekend vacation. It’s
makes me excited to see how He will show up in the times of ministry
in the coming months if we’ll just trust Him. Our God is an awesome
God, holy and worthy to be praised! Amen.
