Just imagine, you’ve been anticipating the World Race beginning for six months. You got psyched for the upcoming adventure at Training Camp two and a half months ago and you’ve spent the past month or so painstakingly shopping, returning, packing and unpacking your pack that will hold all of your possessions for the eleven months of the race. The moment has come where you deplane from the 18 hours of flying. Excitement is fluttering in your stomach and you are in a daze as you make your way through customs and immigration for India. You’re on the escalator heading down to baggage claim only to be greeted by an airport employee waiting to inform you that your pack has been lost. What would you do?
This is Julie’s story.
Julie’s story took place this past Sunday around 2am. She had every right to be mad, frustrated, to cry, to complain, and to break down, but she responded with grace and peace that she said only came from the Holy Spirit. “I was exhausted and it truly didn’t register in my mind the gravity of what it meant for my pack to be lost,” Julie explained. “One of our squad leaders, Amaris, was calm and it was her cool composure that assured me that everything would be alright.”
Let’s rewind to the beginning of January and the week before Julie left her home in Alabama for her World Race journey. She had applied to the World Race out of obedience and had actually been a bit excited, but in the days leading up to Launch Julie began praying and asking God to reveal to her why he wanted her to go on the Race. God laid the word depend on her heart.
Fast forward to the night of day 2 of not having her pack and panic began to settle in Julie’s mind. Once she realized that her pack could be lost for good a seed of anxiety that had been sown began to take root deeper into her heart. Although she was mentally taxed by day 3 of being pack-less, she faithfully persevered in doing mission work even though she had to rely on her squad mates to supply her with clean clothes each day. Her weariness of being dependent grew by the hour. “I began feeling sorry for myself and was distracted from giving my full attention to the work that God had placed in front of me,” recalled Julie. That night her teammate, Heather, encouraged Julie and as they spent time in prayer Heather pleaded with God to return Julie’s pack on the next day. The morning of January 15th, day 4 of the missing pack, Julie decided to lean into the Lord and spent time studying His word. She found herself in Matthew 6,
“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the over, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:28-33
Julie decided in that moment that she would fully depend on the Lord and focus on seeking God’s kingdom. She chose to cast off her anxieties and live in the moment that God had designed for her, trusting that God would take care of her, whether that meant her pack would be found and returned or if it meant that she would have to start back at square one of furnishing her World Race supplies. After spending time in the Word she was sent out into the mission field. On the way to ministry Thursday morning her contact received a call with an update concerning her bag and that it should arrive that evening. The Lord provided the means for her pack to be returned and Julie experienced relief and joy in trusting the Lord to provide for her. “I was reminded of the scripture that says we are to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. I am thankful to have a community of people who mourned my loss while supporting me through my difficult time. It made it even sweeter that when my bag arrived everyone celebrated as if it were a win for all of us.”
During the four days that Julie was separated from her pack she said she learned how to depend on God and the community of her 53 squad mates in the form of learning how to receive well, not just from God but from the people God placed around her. Julie wasn’t expecting for God to teach her such a huge lesson so early into her Race, but she realized it was of utmost importance for her to discover the true meaning of dependence on God.
