I've had the wonderful opportunity to share the blessings and testimonies of the Travel team in a few churches and it has inspired me to also share it on my blog.
We are three members who are a part of the travel team of Hidden World. Our duty/responsibility is to sort out and organize how the team will get from one point to another considering time, distance, prices, safety and method of transport. If we don't have a place to sleep at a ministry point we also have to organize for a roof over our heads. The challenges we face: we are 15, so we don't fit into every mode of transport. We have a very small budget. The language barrier we face in most of the countries doesn't allow us to ask anyone on the street for directions or guidance.
This seems like a very hard and stressful job but to tell you the truth, since we arrived in South America we as travel team hasn't done much at all- it's been a smooth, easy ride... God's favour, blessing and guidance has been with us and He arranged all our travelling and accommodation ahead already, we just had to fall into His plans. If I had to tell you in detail about every time God has provided and blessed us with transport/accommodation I would write a few pages, so I'm only going to name a few highlights.
When we arrived at the airport in Tanzania, we needed to get to a specific area in the city of Dar es Salaam, to take a bus from to Nairobi. Someone came up to us and offered us transport with a reasonable price that fitted into our budget. It seemed a good option and we almost said yes immediately but we decided to pray first. We did not have peace about it after praying and said no. The whole team had to sit/lie on the pavement for about 3 hours as we waited... A guy, who is familiar with our organization came up to us and said he will take us where we need to go for almost no money! So we saved a lot of money (which was much needed later in the journey) and felt safe with this guy. God knew all of this in advance, we only had to ask and trust Him.
When we were in Rio, our team was split up and went to two different missionary points. At the end of our time we had to come together again. The other team send their address to us and somehow we had to get to them (we were basically in opposite sides of the city). We with our western mindset used Google to give us directions. Early the next morning we got on the bus. Unexpectedly Fatima, a lady who works at the church where we stayed, got on the bus with us. She only speaks Portuguese but could kind of explain that she will take us to the other team. We showed her the directions from Google and suddenly she looked very confused and began to speak very fast in Portuguese. A great confusion occurred. What we didn't know and what she couldn't explain to us because of the language barrier, is that our directions was wrong. Then out of the blue a young guy appeared on the bus and came to us. It is very rare to find someone in Brazil that speaks English, but he could and was able to translate and clear the confusion. He also directed us to the right bus at the next station and then disappeared again. So from there we followed Fatima like a row of ducklings, completely trusting her. About 3 hours later we arrived safely at the other team's ministry point. We would NEVER have found this place, which is literally in the middle of no where, on our own or even with Google maps. God directed our steps through people.
From Rio, in Brazil, God led the way step by step to Guyana. We had to go to Belem next but didn't have any contact point there. The last ministry point in Rio told us that they would organize someone, we don't have to worry about it. On our arrival at the airport, we were picked up by Pastor Davi and his team where we stayed for 5 days. They even provided every meal. (They only knew about us coming there, from 3/4 days ago). From here we had to take a boat on the Amazon river to Manaus. As we said goodbye in Belem, they gave us a name and number to call on arrival at Manaus. We didn't know who it was or what it really implied. 5 days later at about 7/8 at night we arrived in Manaus and phoned this random number from a borrowed cellphone. Then we were picked up, given a place to sleep and food (remember we are 15) and the next day they helped us on the right bus/taxi to our next destination. So without knowing who really helped us or being able to speak a lot (because of the Portuguese) we traveled for about 2 weeks, through 4 stop overs (which wasn't organized by us), from Rio and arrived safely in Guyana!!
Every where we went God provided a "person/s of peace" - someone who helped us, guided us, translated, gave us a place to stay, reason for us about prices or made us feel safe.
One theme that has been carried through- me, Lisa and Henk are not the travel team. God is our travel team!!