I know this isn’t the image that immediately makes you think of Fiji. You’re looking for the palm trees and the sunset over the water, right? Well, that was only a very small part of my experience.
How do I sum up 2 weeks that forever changed my life? 2 weeks where I truly encountered God in ways I never had before. 2 weeks where God not only used the Fijian people, but those in the Aussie team I travelled with so powerfully. 2 weeks where I felt God’s presence with me like never before, where I felt I truly encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time and 2 weeks where God answered just about everything I prayed for.
I asked so many questions during and after that first trip. Why has this never happened in Sydney or in the first 20 years of being a Christian? Other than being in another country, what was different? Do I (and others) need to experience a mission trip to encounter God in such a powerful way? Can God work like this, so consistently and effortlessly in my normal, everyday life? What changes can I (and you) make to allow God the space in our lives to speak louder and for the chaos of this world to soften?
What was different?
Previously I have alluded to writing stories from mission trips to Fiji over the past few years. This is the first of those. Here’s some quick background: since being a teenager I have had a heart for sharing my faith with people who don’t believe. It’s also been important to me not to live in an Aussie bubble; to see, smell, touch and experience how people live around the world. To have my eyes opened to how God is working in other parts of the globe and to be grateful for the blessing it is to be part of His plan for His world.
I journaled 63 pages that first trip, from first impressions, to recording answers to prayer, to conversations I had with new-found friends, to insights God had given me into my life back home, to lessons I had learnt about myself, how I interact with others, the time I spend with God, my marriage, how I parent, how I spend my time. The list is almost endless when I think of all the ways God transformed my heart and life that first year.
What were my first impressions?
I wrote in my journal “What made me smile? Just about everything!”
The physical presence of contagious joy, generosity, laughter, singing and dancing still stays with me. The Fijian people in the village I have stayed in all 3 years have made me feel like family. They embraced me and our team so warmly and with such love, we were deeply impacted.
Some of the biggest challenges for me that first trip was travelling with a team of nearly 50 young adults and although I was surrounded, I have never felt more alone or lost. It’s crazy how silent a crowded world can be sometimes.
The first couple of days were the hardest, as the majority of people I was travelling with weren’t people I knew. Outside of our structured program, I spent a lot of time (some days 3-4 hours) with God, pouring out my heart, soaking up as much knowledge and intimacy with Him as I could while I had the chance. I had left my husband and children in Sydney and a very wise mumma-bear, Beth, gave me the insight that perhaps I was grieving the loss of responsibility. Seems a strange thing to be grieving, but I’ve shared before some of the chaos of being a full-time working mum, so to suddenly be in another country, away from your family and to not have to do anything for anyone else was oddly jarring.
I quickly realised that God was opening my heart up to a number of friends that I know will walk beside me for the rest of my life. He was also preparing my heart for an intimacy with Him that I was worried I would lose when I got home. God made me realise that I had not seen Him working as powerfully in Sydney, as in Fiji, because I never allowed Him the space to do so. Time with God was one of the many things on my agenda each week, but it was often lost within so many other priorities.
4 years on and I haven’t lost sight of the blessings that come when you choose to put God first.
Overseas mission was the method that God used to change my priorities and heart forever, but it will look different for you. For some it might be something extreme, like being in remission, or having a near-death experience, but for others it might not be. It might just be the realisation that God deserves His rightful place as your number 1 priority. That He is your King and He has the right to that place in your heart. I want to encourage you to keep connected to Him. Keep seeking His plan for the next step you need to take. And then allow yourself to let go, and to be obedient “in the now.”
My encouragement to you would be to make yourself available to God. To stop and listen. To drown out the world and reconnect with your creator. To find a way to rediscover (or perhaps discover) the intense love God has for you and how through it and by it you can be used to move mountains.
Jesus says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8. The context of the words Ask, Seek, Knock are not set in the singular. The original language instructed people to consistently Ask, Seek and Knock. To keep Asking, keep Seeking and keep Knocking. To bring all our requests to God. Anything important to us is important to Him, which I know is hard to comprehend, given his omniscience and sovereignty, but He is both and equally sovereign and intimate. Able to create universes and feed the sparrows.
Until next time, trust that His plan is always better than yours.
BB
