According to the teachings of Jesus in Luke 10, from the 21st till the 29th of August, we left Kusadasi (Turkey) without money to spend, nor any scheduled place to stay in, relying only on God’s provision and guidance. It was without planning and firstly, island of Cyprus,appeared only as a joke possibly because it would be the farthest, most hidden and where we could get to only with the providence of God.However, we started feeling God’s prompting through several evidences that were being shown to us individually and our faith started to grow stronger. For sure we could have stayed and practiced Luke 10 in Kusadasi, where we already were and then headed towards Istanbul. I’m sure God would have us experience great things and opportunities would have come for us to minister. But the long and difficult journey required from us a bigger dosage of determination, based on faith, and a deeper belief on His providence regarding all of the needs, wants and solutionsof the journey.
Before departing, I asked many times in my quiet times with God, for him to surprise me. I was willing to trust beyond my supposed limit. I really wanted to add to my life’s “curriculum” stories where the sufficiency of God was evident! Because of all this, I started the journey with great expectation about the move of God in those days. Once again, I wanted to see evidences of His sufficiency and I knew clearly that He always matches any honest expectation, big or small. I also knew that God admires and expects from us determination and a strong will, and He always acts accordingly. So, the more we could believe and act accordingly, the more chances we would have to see Him in action. If we were able to walk by faith, the more we would see from Him. And that’s what happened... We believed and He showed us more of Him in the same proportion... Despite the fact that we couldn’t know where or when we would cross the sea to Cyprus we headed towards a place where we thought it could happen, as if there was no issues to be addressed and as if everything had previously been arranged or as people that trust an Almighty God that can easily surpass any problem, like the lack of money. Since day one, we decide not to store any food with us, relying on a daily basis on God’s provision. We always blessed someone with the surplus of our meals, knowing that as we were taking care of others, God, just like He did with Israel people in the desert, would take care of us. That wasn’t something that we were in a way imposing to God but our faith understood that God wanted to prove to us He can take care of us on a daily basis. He wanted to show us what He was capable of.
In what ways has God surprised me? Exactly in the unquestionable way that He supplied for us. He did so not in a subtle way, but in a very clear and tangible way so that no doubt could remain. He was really taking good care of us. The way, one time after another, that he made us cross someone’s path so that our needs would be met, or the way He provided a bed, three meals a day (even including some restaurants, desserts and ice-cream) without us asking anyone to do it, the way we were blessed with money that was so useful later on…We travelled 2169 kms, we hitchhiked with 16 different people exactly to the places where we needed to go. When the time came for us to pass the sea, someone offered us a discount on the boat tickets, and, it was not by mere chance that the total amount of the tickets was exactly the amount of money we had. Only a little time had passed, and once again God showed that He was in total control of every situation, when another person came and paid the taxes that we were uninformed of and were not part of the price of the tickets, allowing us, therefore, to enter Cyprus.
After experiencing this kind of total dependence and intense on the sufficiency of God, some questions started to run through my mind that I would like to share. At one stage of the journey, after another blessing we had received from a couple that offered us a roof and a meal, on the elevator, someone asked “What would it be like if we would live like this all the time?” And if indeed we tried to…How would it be? What’s keeping us from doing it and experiencing it? Should we face something like this as a “one time thing”, as an exercise of our faith? Which of the experiences encountered during Luke 10 will persist afterwards? In what way is this experience different and more important than an entire life living in total dependence on God and His provision? Is not Luke 10 a lifestyle?
By Samuel Pereira