Recipe for an Adventure:

1. Sign up for an overseas trip that sounds cool
2. Realise, the day before you leave, that you don't know anyone else going or what you will actually be doing the whole time
3. Trust God!

Well, I'm going to interrupt my stories about India from last year, to bring some news of the more current sort. Tomorrow, I'm heading off to Vanuatu! And I thought I might tell the story of how I came to be going there; I reckon it shows the faithfulness and the love of God.

It all started back in September, when I felt the need to leave the country again and was plotting how I could go to Singapore for a week after my exams (yes, I guess Singapore and Vanuatu are pretty different places). Maybe I should be a travel agent, I do love plotting overseas travel... anyway, I had the whole thing figured out, and then I realised - I wasn't old enough to legally stay in a hotel on my own. Hmmm! So I tried to see if I could convince anyone to come with me, but without success. Just as I finally accepted I might not be able to go overseas this year after all, I realised my mum was looking at something on her computer. It was the ad for a trip which I had considered earlier in the year but dismissed because the dates clashed with other stuff... a trip to Vanuatu! It was sort of half mission trip and half post-exam relaxing holiday. The idea immediately took hold of my travel-plotting brain and wouldn't let go. So I looked into it more. I had this strange feeling that God was giving me a nudge.

So I asked God whether I should go to Vanuatu. I asked for a sign, I asked that His will be done. I asked to be willing to give up the other thing which the trip clashed with; both the trip and this other thing were once-in-a-lifetime things, so I was a little bit conflicted, as if I wasn't sure whether God would really come through for me again like He always has. I applied to our church presbytery for financial help. I told them how much the trip cost, but not that I was $500 short. We received a message a few days later from the church council. They could not make the full amount of the trip, they said, but they could give some. And the most they could do, they said, was... $500! God is good :)

Then I decided I would speak at church about the trip, with the congregation who have become my very dear family in Christ. I decided that, God willing, I was going to Vanuatu. I prayed and I prayed and I prayed, and I listened. I felt a voice urging 'Go, I am with you'. I let go of my possessions; they belonged to God anyway. They were a gift from God, so I would offer them back to Him... having empty hands brought me a great solace, something I didn't expect. Before I had been so worried about keeping all the money I had, but when it was gone, I felt a kind of relief. (As a bit of a joke, ages ago when I had to make a name for my bank account, I called it 'God's money' in Hindi, to remind myself that it didn't really belong to me. Then, when I had to make the decision of whether to go to Vanuatu, I was struggling with my usual indecisiveness... and then I saw that name. That helped.)
I registered for the trip, I paid the deposit. I felt a great peace, letting go of my fears and wants.
"This will be an experiment in trusting God," I thought. I was reminded of words from a song that I like very much: 'Nothing left to hold on to... I'll raise these empty hands to you.'
I looked at photos and videos from previous trips that had gone (it's run each year for students finishing their final exams). I saw the people, the places, and my heart yearned within me as it hadn't done for some time - not since India. I remembered my faith. I remembered my hope.

A little while later, I was still a little bit short of the cost of the trip - by $15. I knew God wouldn't let me not go for such a small amount. After church (I think on the day the final balance of the trip was due), someone came up and gave me a handful of gold coins - $10. Then I remembered someone had given my mother an envelope for me, and she had put it in my bag. I opened it - $5.
$15.
I smiled at God's provision. Then later a very dear old friend of mine very generously gave $50, and even in the weeks afterward people have very generously given small amounts here and there.
Jesus is always enough. My God is the God who provides for His children!
I am so thankful for the generous and loving church family I have been blessed with. So many people have prayed for me, not just during my exams, but for many years. Many people have come up to me after church to let me know they are praying for me, and even that they will be praying for me on this trip I will be going on tomorrow. I feel so loved, so supported.
I also realised something amazing just a few weeks ago. I had been confused that the church presbytery still wanted to give the $500; I thought the church had already given it. Then finally I understood - they both wanted to give $500. The church and the presbytery (I hadn't realised that they were separate things). God's wonderful provision never ceases to astound me and fill me with hope!

So, that is the story behind how I came to be going to Vanuatu tomorrow! When I get back I will hopefully share some stories from there.
This morning it kind of hit me that I really was leaving tomorrow. I seems incredible to think that tomorrow I will be in another country. I will not know anyone else going; I still don't even know what the itinerary is! But it will be an experiment in trusting God, as it has been from the very beginning. I know that my God is utterly trustworthy; He will never leave me nor forsake me, no matter where I am in the world. As I wrote in India a few times, "I will not be afraid, because my God goes with me."  It is time for another adventure with Jesus! And it is my prayer that His love will shine on my face for all to see, and that He would use my life to bless other precious souls around me, to show his love in practical ways to my brothers and sisters in Christ; it is my prayer that I will appreciate every breath and every day God has given me, and use all of it for His glory.


"Bring to God your bread and fishes, and He will multiply them how He wills."