Silence.
Jack had left his passport at home. We thought about trying to get someone to bring it halfway, or even drive back, but both of those would delay us for at least several hours and we had to get to briefing in just a few hours. With the help of our parents, we eventually decided the best thing to do was to have Jack’s parents overnight ship his passport to a leader’s house near where we were staying for briefing. We started praying and continued to California for briefing.
At briefing we learned that not only were we missing a passport, our team of seventeen was missing more than $19,000 of support. We had two days to raise all of that, or we could not all get on the plane. We went into overdrive on calling our supporters and especially on prayer.
By the next day, (Praise God and thank you supporters!!!), we were only $8,000 away from our goal. Support continued to come in throughout the day and we were sure that God wanted us all to go to Tokyo and to show us that it was only by His will that we made it there. But the night before we were supposed to get on the plane, we were hit by another blow. Jack had received a delivery confirmation of his passport, but for some reason, it had not reached the house it was supposed to. The family searched all over their neighborhood for houses with similar numbers and streets, but with no luck. We couldn’t even contact the postman to see if he misplaced it because it was his first week on the job or something and they didn’t have a way to contact him before 9:30 the next morning, when we were already supposed to be at the airport.
As stressful as all of this seems when I describe it, it was an amazing time to learn about trusting in the Lord. Nineteen grand is no small sum, and we were praying constantly. And while we had a knowable way to try to raise our support money, there was absolutely nothing we could do to try to get Jack’s passport. But what amazed me and what I learned was the remarkable confidence our team had in the Lord. These prayers were not frantic, desperate, begging cries to someone who we had to plead with to earn favor. They were requests presented in earnest and in confidence to someone we knew loved us and had the best in mind for us. We knew God was in control of the situation even when it was completely out of our control. I have never felt such peace in a situation that seemed so precarious as when I was praying for the support and Jack’s passport to come in.
By the morning of our flight, we had basically all of our support raised, but still no passport. Then, one hour before we had to leave for the airport, I got a text from Jack: They found his passport. Talk about a Hallelujah Jesus moment. It was amazing.
Leaving the passport behind for sure was a mistake, but it was totally part of God’s plan. Now, as we left the airport and flew to our strange new home for six weeks, we knew for certain that we were in God’s hands and that our strength was totally in Him. What a bomb way to begin the trip.
