Have you ever been to a place you know nothing about? What about not having any plans once you arrived? Now try a different country that speaks a language you haven’t spoken in 2 years. Once you picture yourself in that situation then you’ll understand what my team and I went through when we arrived in Pucallpa, Peru.
The week leading up to our arrival I was trying to get a hold of our ministry host, but he wasn’t responding to his email or calling me back. That only meant one thing – our only game plan when we arrived in Pucallpa would be no game plan. All we had was our host’s phone number and the address of the church. Plus, the three of us who speak conversational Spanish now were not confident that day. Let’s just say I was praying while I was sleeping on the 20 hour bus ride.
The game plan when we stepped off the bus was to grab our bags then figure something out. While that was happening each of us had 2 or 3 taxi drivers bothering us for a ride. We were getting stressed with all the people talking in a different language and then Katie decides to mention Pastor Lister’s name (our host). One of the drivers said “mi amigo!” In the mess of all these drivers we were able to find someone who was friends with our host. The man called Pastor and brought us to his house, safe and sound.
The first couple days were rough with our Spanish but those of us who knew the most soon became comfortable. The other three are getting more comfortable as well and are learning simple phrases a vocab. We are loving our time here with our new family. We are working at the church with some cleaning, painting, creating skits, and sharing our testimonies.
But talking about our ministry is not the reason for this blog. How we arrived is what I want to focus in on.
Right after Jesus sends his disciples and us out inot the world in Matthew 28 he says, “And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
God is omnipresent, which means He can be at all places at all times. So while we were in Bolivia playing with rocks He went before us to Peru, and is before us now in Ecuador and all the other countries. He’s making a way for us.
The moment we stopped off that bus in Pucallpa the Spirit was there. We had no idea what to do, but the Spirit lead that driver to us that day. All we had to do was say Pastor’s name and one person out of 300,000 some people in that city knew who we were talking about.
A mere human could not get close to that perfect planning. And God doesn’t stop. We came with very little Spanish and our host not knowing any English. We’re in the middle of the month having conversational Spanish and our family learning and speaking English.
We can be reassured that God goes before us and plans a way for us. If we are faithful and follow the path then we will be surrounded by His presence and be protected. I’m not saying that everything will be peachy, because it will be far from it! Things will be difficult and we will be persecuted as is said in John 15:19-20 – “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than its master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” But we have hope in the truth that God will never leave us.
We need to live in that Truth. God goes before us so don’t fear. God is greater than fear [G>F]. He will never leave you.
Grace and Peace,
Hannah
