God providing the money was incredible, but that was not all. What followed was a series of events I did not expect at the time.
First, let's focus on the mission trips. Thanks to the miraculous provision, I was able to go to Moldova for the second time. It was amazing, just like in the previous year. But it would not be the last time! In fact, far from it. From 2010 to 2016, I took part of seven mission trips, one per year. All of them were to Moldova, except for a mission trip to England in 2014.
Out of all these mission trips, I wanted to highlight two of them due to how God taught me about trust and courage.
2013's mission trip
The mission trip to Moldova in 2013 was a special one. God moved in amazing ways, saving people, healing them, and using both the missions team and the local church to spread the gospel. There was one issue, though: we didn't have enough translators.
In our missions team, we had people from Spain, Germany and Switzerland. Most of us didn't speak the local language, besides a few phrases and random words. That meant that, in order to communicate with others, we needed translators. It was an important detail, since our activities involved talking with Moldovan people, hearing them, praying for them and giving words of encouragement. It's hard to do all that without understanding each other!
So, I took the challenge of going on my own. That way, the rest of the missions team could group up easier and have translators. Nobody said anything to me. I remember praying during the first day, and thinking "God, I know you can either give me the gift of tongues to speak with the locals, or show me people you want to touch, that speak English". The former would have been really cool if it happened, but the latter provided an interesting story.
I got nervous and almost regretted the decision of going by myself. I was in a park, walking around. After an hour or two, I was still only walking, stopping a couple of times to drink water. I remember thinking, "Why did I do this? Why couldn't I stick with a group? It makes no sense. I can't do this alone!".
But this was not about me. It was about God, sharing His Word and bringing light to people. I set my overthinking and fears aside. After a while, I noticed two teenagers playing guitar, practicing some songs. They went on for a few minutes before they stopped. Then, I approached them and talked to them. They spoke English!
That was an important first step in trusting God to make everything fall into place. I connected them with a worship leader that was also in the park, which led to a cool moment of playing guitar together and sharing about God. After that, I got to talk and pray with other people through the week, becoming less anxious and more willing to share.
Let me talk about Ioan. During the first day at the park, I saw a couple of young guys, one holding a beer. At first, I was like, "Nope! No drunk people". But, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you know how God is many times. My heart was beating fast when I saw them, which I took as the Holy Spirit leading me to speak with them.
Oh, I'm glad I did speak with them. Not for me, but for Ioan. He was craving to understand more about God and life as a Christian. He asked me many questions, shared his thoughts and doubts, and he even became my translator for a couple of days! I told him I was going to be in the park every day at the same time, and he made sure to always be there except for one day. Along with him, we spoke with several people and prayed for them. I could see that Ioan was learning from the experiences, realizing that there is more to following Jesus Christ than just believing.
See, when we take steps of faith and take courage, God impacts our lives and others'.
2014's mission trip
The following year, I went to England instead of Moldova. This was a huge mission trip for me due to an important detail: I would be co-leading the whole time. I was leading as a 22 years old boy abroad, never having done something similar before, while also being in charge of three other people younger than me. I still don't know how I accepted the challenge, but I'm glad I did.
There are so many stories I could tell you about. For now, I'll focus on two aspects: being out of the comfort zone, and God providing for our finances.
The whole trip was way out of my comfort zone. Like, way past. This mission trip felt the same as trying to get to the moon by myself. In other words, impossible. But, I saw God shaping me. He used this trip to help me step up, learn a thing or two about leading, and see that everything does work out despite me freaking out at times. After all, God is in control of everything. If God ever presents you with an opportunity to leave your comfort zone for the sake of His Kingdom, go for it. It'll probably annoy you at times and make you question your life choices, but you'll be grateful afterward.
About the finances... Well, here we go again. I forgot the exact numbers —since it was in pounds instead of euros or dollars—, so let's do an exercise. Imagine we needed $150 each person for the whole stay: about $70 for the first half of the mission trip, and about $80 for the second half. So, that's the amount we all brought. So far, so good.
During the second half, the person I was co-leading with said to all of us, "By the way, change of plans. For this second part of the mission trip, we need about $20 more than we thought, per person. Are we good?". I immediately replied: "Yes, that's ok".
Nope, it wasn't. In fact, we already used some of the money for the second half. I was about to warn the rest of the team about our finances. A sense of peace filled my heart, as if God was assuring me that it was going to be ok. I really wanted to tell them about the shortage and take control over how we spent the money, but the sole idea of doing that bugged me. I said nothing, continued with the mission trip, and observed our finances in silence, even during a couple of moments in which we had unexpected expenses.
During our last day in England, right before we were about to travel back to Spain, we spent all the money in our budget. Not an hour earlier, not an hour later. I tell you: no amount of planning could have predicted that outcome. All I can say is that we were all focused on doing the mission's work, and God certainly provided the rest.
There are many stories I could share from the mission trips. For now, I'll leave it at that. In the next and final part of the testimony, the focus will be my years in college, which were definitely affected by how God moved in 2011 and the mission trips.
Missed the first part of the testimony? Check €192: A testimony beyond money - Part 1.
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