This year in Taiwan, God has been teaching me a lot about the realm of faith. I've learned that faith requires action. I've learned that in order for faith to grow it must be fully invested. I've been challenged to put myself in extremely difficult situations that allow me to go "All In" on God so that my faith may be built. On March 16th, I received the sad news that Charles, one of our staff members at the Wilderness Fellowship Ministries, had suffered a stroke and went home to be with the Lord. Our family had worked with Charles for almost eight years, and for us kids, he had become a second grandfather. After receiving the news, I immediately wanted to do everything that I could to make it home for the funeral. With two of the teachers already planning to make trips to the states, I knew that there was a strong possibility that my school may not grant me permission to leave Taiwan. In my eyes, going home, seemed impossible. I prayed that God would somehow make a way for me to attend his funeral.
The next morning, after discovering really reasonable airplane tickets days before their departure, I decided to call Phoebe, my school administrator, just to see what she would say. I explained the situation and then asked her if she would allow me to return home for just one week to attend his funeral. I made sure to let her know that the decision was up to her and that I would not be upset if she decided to not let me go. My first priority is serving the people of Taiwan. This was a desire that I had, but I was more than willing to sacrifice my desire for the desires of the Taiwanese. She told me that she needed to think about it and would give me an answer by the end of the day.
After I got off the phone with Phoebe, I decided to take this whole situation as an opportunity to stretch my faith. I had prayed and asked God to make a way for me to attend His funeral, but I wasn’t putting anything into action. I was a farmer that asked God for rain, but didn’t prepare my fields in advance for it. I was like Peter asking Jesus to walk on water, but not getting out of the boat. I knew that if God wanted me back for the funeral, He would make it happen. He would work out the details. If He didn’t want me to go, He would close the door. I had made up my mind. I was going to “prepare for rain”. I started packing my suitcases, trusting in God to work out all of the other details. By mid afternoon, I had already gotten the okay from both Dr. Chen (Head of IBLP Taiwan) and Tina (TESOL Teacher Director) and was eagerly waiting for the decision from Phoebe. As I was packing, I got the sudden inspiration to take my test of faith to the next level. I decided that I was going to purchase a plane ticket BEFORE receiving the official consent to leave and also not knowing the exact date of the funeral. I quickly grabbed a computer and began searching for flights. Because it had been quite a few hours since the morning, the prices of the tickets had jumped up a few hundred dollars. Even though it was a little disappointing, I determined that I was going to trust God no matter what. I have to admit that even though I was desiring to fully "step out of the boat", there was still a part of me that hadn't fully let go of the boat yet. I still had to make sure I could get a refund before trying to purchase a ticket just in case Phoebe said no. Eventually I had picked a flight and had filled out all of the information except for my payment method. That’s when I realized that even though I had enough money in the bank, it was all in my savings and in order for me to purchase the ticket, it needed to be in my checking account. The problem was that because it was the weekend, transferring the money into my checking account, wouldn’t have become official until Monday night Taiwan time (Monday morning American time), and I needed to fly out on Monday morning Taiwan time (Sunday night American time).
I was chatting with my assistant Camellia about the situation on gmail. I explained to her the problem I was facing, and asked her if it would be possible for me to use her card and then pay her back later. She said that it would be fine.
As I was talking with Camellia, I heard the sound of my phone’s text message tone. I knew it was from Phoebe. The moment of truth had come. To be honest, I was a little nervous. I walked into my room, picked up my phone, slid it open, and pressed the “view” button. To my great delight, I had been given permission to leave. God had answered my prayer. Praise the Lord!
It’s awesome how all of the details fell into place so quickly. It’s amazing how when I decided to trust God and “prepare for rain”, even though I didn’t think there was any possibility of rain, God worked everything out perfectly. God is truly incredible.
