As many of you now know, over the July 4th weekend around $1,000 worth of gear and clothes towards my trip was among the things stolen. I waited this long to write about the post because of a. procrastination and b. I wanted to see God’s entire plan for this event and be able to share it all with you.
So, here is the story…
The July 4th weekend I went up to Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Muskegon, where I worked for 3 summers and went to all my life, to see some of my good friends. I decided to spend one extra night at camp since some of my friends were camping out on the beach on the night of the 4th and it would bring back great memories with them. At one point in the night we decided to run up the dunes to watch the stars. All of a sudden I had a ringing in my ears and gut wrenching feeling that I should leave, that I shouldn’t be there. I dismissed the idea that I should leave the beach and just decided that getting off the dune would be fine enough. We went swimming, hung out by the fire and about 45 minutes after I had put my swimsuit back in my bag I went back to it to get my sleeping bag out, only to find that it was gone. I started to freak out, but my friends were reassuring me, saying that it was dark and we would definitely find it in the morning… until, another girl and guy found their bags missing as well. At that point I lost it and angrily left the party grumbling about how I wouldn’t even have a sleeping bag to sleep in, so there was no point in me staying. Halfway down the beach I ran into two guys pointing out this huge fire along the tree line about 500 meters in front of where we were, these two guys were at the fire earlier and are who most people think stole the bags, but no one is positive. Little did I know at that time that the fire I saw was all of our stuff burning to a crisp. I drove back home to Kalamazoo that night, about 3am and stopped along the road for a couple hours to nap, then made it back to Mattawan to a very confused dad at 7 in the morning.
I started counting up everything that was lost while my friend Branden, whose bag was also stolen, was filing the police report in Muskegon. Nothing came of the report, but we found out most of what happened that night, including finding the pile of ash that at one point were our three bags. Below are pictures of what is left, most of the colored things and whole pieces were mine, which leads me to believe they burnt my bag last.
So, now to the part where I tell you what I did wrong and how God is awesome, haha 🙂
Throughout all of this God has been preparing me for what this “race” will have in store for me. I have been worrying about getting the best gear and bringing my favorite shirts and all of this nonsense. As if God won’t provide for me, so I need to prepare as much as possible. No, I need to give this all to Him and trust in Him, because he has created this world and breathed life in to me, so OF COURSE He is able and WILL take care of me, his child, while being sent on His missions! There are so many chances for my bags to be stolen, lost, burnt, whathaveyou and I need to be prepared for this, detached from materialism with faith that God will provide. God HAS provided, after this event, and I now have either all of my gear back or the money to buy it. Osprey is sending me a brand new bag, Cascade Designs is sent me a brand new sleeping pad and pillow (which isn’t protocol, God just sent me to the right representative) and Moosejaw has given me a new water bottle. I realized that the clothes I had lost, that I was the most upset about losing, is just clothes and I don’t really need all of that, I have enough.
Also, God is showing me to LISTEN to Him and obey His commands. How can He use me on the field if I am not listening to Him and hanging on to His every word? How many ministry opportunities will I miss out on if I don’t listen to God when he prompts me to roll down my window and yell over to the lady next to me at the stop light who is crying if I can pray for her? (Which did happen a few days ago ha). When I had that sunken feeling that I had to leave the beach, I should have left. It was at that moment that a few girls that stayed by the fire heard those two boys conspiring to steal our bags, I should have listened and God would have protected me.
Thanks to everyone who stuck with me to the end of this post, I know it’s a long one. Thank you also for all of your prayers through this time, I couldn’t have done this on my own, glory to God!
