Trading Fear for Faith
Today on the blog, Danielle King (Web Administrator/Next Gen Admin Ass't) is backing up a bit and sharing what happened BEFORE she ever got on the airplane, and how it impacted her experience in Haiti.
Back in November, I was writing out letters to our Compassion sponsor kids (we sponsor three as a group at IGNITE: College & Young Adults). At that time, I felt like God was inviting me to go on a trip to Haiti to meet them. But that seemed crazy for many reasons, like financing, health risks, and – oh yeah – I just had a baby in March!
I told my husband about it, ending with, “Isn’t that just the craziest thing?” But to my surprise, he said that he thought I should absolutely accept God’s invitation and go! So I signed up ... and immediately started worrying. Constantly. I worried about my husband getting no sleep for a week if the kids were up all night, that the kids would miss me, that they wouldn’t miss me, that I wouldn’t raise enough financial support to go, that the kids in Haiti would think I was boring, that we would all get Zika virus and the plane would crash … I’ll stop there because I think you get the idea.
Actually, I was doing more than just worrying; I was sarcastically joking about worst case scenarios, thinking that joking about things would make them less scary. But instead of that humor being a relief, those words were actually feeding my fears even more. At some point before the trip, I prayed to God and asked Him to give me His peace about it all, that even if my worst fears came true, that I would trust Him and feel His presence.
And do you know what happened? He gave me so much of His peace and assurance, that for the first time since I was writing out those letters, I felt anticipation and excitement! Once I traded in my fear for more faith, I stopped worrying and started dreaming.
In fact, I was so at peace that I almost felt guilty that I wasn’t sobbing over how much I missed my husband and children. God bound up my heart until the moment I saw them waiting for me in the airport – a whole eight days of missing them hit me in two seconds! Those hugs and tears felt so great though.
As for the actual trip to Haiti – there are so many stories and amazing ways we saw God at work. And I wouldn’t have been witness to any of it if I had stayed home in fear, or traveled with a huge burden of worry. God poured out His grace over me and gave me a stronger faith than I had before. And I am so glad that I let Him stretch me.
Do you have fears that need to be traded in to God for more faith? The Brave Conference for women is coming to Eastern Hills Church on April 8-9, 2016. Learn more at easternhillschurch.org/brave.
Are you willing to be stretched to go on an adventure to see how God is at work in the world? We are still building teams to go to New York City in June and Mozambique, Africa in August. Learn more at easternhillschurch.org/trips.