We are less than seven days from departure. Funny thing, emotions are; overall I have felt only brief moments of anxiety about this trip. Yet, those brief moments, have been deafening to say the least. This morning I had the epiphany that I would not experience another “Monday” before leaving for the Philippines. All of the sudden a wave of panic tried to overtake me. “Am I ready?” “Are you sure you want to do this?” I tell them to get behind me and they go…of course it may be the busyness of life that has kept me distracted from the reality that we are “in-the-snap”.
Preparing for this has been an adventure, story and testimony. As a family we have been planning this trip for more than a year. The purpose to provide a Rite-of-Passage trip for our son Nate. The goal, to broaden his world perspective, utilize his natural gifts, and win his heart more for the Lord. Originally we planned to travel to Tanzania and spend this time with our wonderful cousins Ryan and Stacy Helbling (You can read more about them here) who run Global-Effect. Now I had felt strongly the Lord promised flight tickets for less than $1200. Quickly it became evident that tickets to Tanzania for $1200 would BE A MIRACLE. By mid-November I was getting frustrated because ticket prices were never below $1500-1700. As the story unfolds I felt more uncertain the trip to Tanzania was not going to happen; in fact it felt like the doors were closing. Then it happened: Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) touched down in the Philippines and a few sunday’s later we saw pictures of the devastation. I felt moved by the need for help, and that tug on the heart you might know so well.
I ignored it.
By early December we still had no tickets and all our plans were getting stalled. Then another update from the Philippines by Edgar and Edna Bantigue and again the tug. That night I turned to Starlyn and said, “I think we’re supposed to go to the Philippines.” There was no time to plan, no time to schedule; this became an impossible task. Perfect. For this to happen, in one week we would need to communicate with Edgar and Edna, find flights, plan dates, order tickets, reserve hotels and travel arrangements…impossible.
Nothing is impossible with God.
In a week and a half schedules were made, tickets were found and purchased, hotel rooms were reserved and we had successfully shifted from flying east out of SFO to flying west. Oh did I mention our tickets were $960?
Now to start planning what to pack. Since we ordered our tickets, the Philippines have experienced more than two weeks of Monsoon storms causing additional flooding and destruction. We have been praying for a change in the weather…Just today the weather report for next week shows partly-cloudy skies, 76-84 Degrees 85% humidity. With great weather like that, who needs a monsoon?
-Tim