A Place of Dependence

Three weeks after arriving, it was time for our travel to begin.  Our first trip was one that just I (Andi) was taking.  It was a trip to Guinea to help with 2 teams there who have begun language and culture study.  I was bringing some of others with me to visit the village, but I was responsible for most of the details of the trip.  I have traveled on my own before and although it is not my preferred way to travel, I have come to accept that it is necessary at time.  So I was a little surprised when days before my trip I started to get really anxious about it.  There was definitely reason to be nervous as it was my first time traveling to this country and getting inland to where are missionaries are on my own, but it was not much different from other adventures I have faced in the past.  The day before the trip this anxiety grew as some plans started to unravel.  There was a taxi man who was supposed to be picking us up from the airport and taking us to the Guesthouse where we would stay for the night and then taking us inland the next day.  Most people don’t know where this guesthouse is located and there are no addresses there to get you where you want to go, so I was dependent on someone who knows where they are going.  In other words I needed someone else to get me where I needed to go and had no back up plans.  So the day before my trip,when calling to confirm with my taxi man that he would be there, I find out that he is sick, but he has friend who can be there.  I began to feel my confidence start cracking.  Visions of all the things that could go wrong and the realization that plan B didn’t really exist started weighing down on me.  Really this was no different from any other trip we have had as things always go wrong, but what surprised me was the worry that seemed to plague me.  I started realizing that I was out of the habit of being in a place of reliance on God.  I was worried because I knew things were beyond my control and that most likely things wouldn’t go as planned.  However God had always taken care of us and seen us through whatever trials we faced.  It had just been a while since I was in that position of dependence and had quickly forgotten to turn to him.

It is so easy to slip into dependence on myself when life is going smoothly and then I quickly forget to turn to God.  So here I was preparing for a trip where I knew everything was beyond me and I was reminded once again that my full dependence needed to be on the Lord.  Things would go wrong, but I needed to hang on to the promise that it would not be more than I could handle if I was clinging to God.  Most likely I would not handle this with grace as I can’t hide my stress well, but He would provide calm in the storm.

So I left for this trip thankful for the reminder.  Thankful for the situations before me that helped me to remember to place all of my trust in the Lord.

When we arrived at the airport, there was no taxi man waiting for us.  I called him and after a few miscommunications we found each other and all else went very smoothly.  The trip was amazing.  It was great to connect with each of the teams down there and help encourage them as they pressed on in building relationships and learning to communicate.  There is still along road ahead of them to reach the point where they can share Gods truth, but just as God saw me through my trip he would see them through each of the challenges a long the way.

I returned home thankful to be reminded that life was about full dependence on the Lord in every situation we are facing.  Those moments of full dependence are often where God can use us the most.