I just started an Online Bible Study called “What Happens When Women Say Yes to God” through Proverbs 31 Ministries. This is our first week and so far it has been great. One of the things we are doing today is called a” Blog Hop” where we read each other’s blogs. We had a set of questions to pick from and since my answer pertained to GapFill.org I thought I would post it on the blog and make GapFill.org part of the Blog Hop. The question, #yestoGod, is to share a time that you said “yes” to what God wanted you to do. So here goes…
Bible Dedication
As some of you know, Kathy Vanaria, who spent 25 years in Papua New Guinea (PNG) translating the Bible into Mesem, was returning to PNG in January of this year for the Bible dedication. Many people from her church organization were going and she also was hoping that I was also planning on going. She has been telling me about the dedication for the last few years and I had been putting aside the money each month and had saved $4,000 for the trip. I kept telling her I wasn’t sure if I was going but saved nevertheless. Honestly, I really was super scared to go. You see I am a “Marriott” type girl who hates camping, and well…going to the jungle was just beyond a reasonable request. Even if Kathy and I go waaaay back (old college roommates).
So the time came for me to book the ticket. I had waited as long as I could and it was a month before the trip so I knew I needed to do something. I contacted the travel agent that Kathy had given me and days later she sent me the flight info. Well, I was stopping in counties I didn’t even know were on a map for a price tag of over $5,000. So that settled it, I wasn’t going. I had save $4,000 and I knew just what I was going to do with the money. One of the GapFill projects we had going at the time were hearing aids for Phil Rojak. He needed them before he returned to his missionary work in Papua New Guinea. GapFill had only raised enough money for about 1/2 of a digital hearing aid, which of course would be of no value. So, I knew exactly what I was going to. I was going to give the $4,000 to Phil so he could return to PNG with 2 digital hearing aids. Perfect! I had been thinking about this over the last few weeks and me not being able to get a flight that I could afford was perfect confirmation. Also, since I really didn’t want to go anyway, this was a “win” for everybody. But something inside just knew it wasn’t a “win” for everyone. It was not what God wanted. I can’t explain why, but I had this inside, gut-wrenching feeling that this was wrong. I knew my girlfriend Kathy would be disappointed but hey…I was giving her friend Phil his hearing aids so she couldn’t be that mad. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself this was all good, it just didn’t feel like it was “all good”. No matter how hard I tried to make this wonderful plan work, it just didn’t. I just knew God wanted me to go to Papua New Guinea not matter how much I pretended not to hear Him. I remember thinking, “God, what am I going to tell Phil when he has to return with no digital hearing aids”. I remember believing God was saying to me, “Not your concern, you have to trust me here”.
Trying to Book a Flight
So I tried for about 2 hours online trying to get flights to work on my own…nothing…I remember I kept thinking. I don’t get in God, nothing is working and I just kept getting more and more frustrated. So…what do I do when I want to relax and calm down…you guessed it…I eat ice cream! So I went downstairs and got a big cup of chocolate ice cream, mixed in some chocolate chips and put some cool whip on top. Now I could clear my head…
So, after that sugar rush I had some more energy…so I said to God…”Okay, I will try this one more time then I am going to bed”. It was getting late and I had to get up at 5 am for work the next day. When I went upstairs I pulled out the itinerary of another couple that was going to the dedication from the Boston area. I thought, “Let me look and see how they are getting there”. Well after about 1/2 hour I had managed to find flights that would put me in LA in time to catch the same flight they were going on to Brisbane, Australia then to Port Moresby in PNG then to Lae in PNG which was where I needed to get to. I remember having two browser windows open as I had one half of the trip in one window and then the PNG flights in another window (you could not book straight through to Lae, believe me I tried). I calculated the total cost and it was less than $4,000. So there it was staring me in the face…and I sat there for maybe 15 seconds. I knew I only had a certain amount of time to hold the flights. And well…something inside me said, “Just Do IT”… and I did…I just did it. I hit that “purchase button” on both windows and charged my credit card. I remember thinking, “God this is soooo crazy… I have no idea what I am doing. This is soooo out of my comfort zone”. And then I thought, wait until I tell my husband Bill in the morning, it was now well after midnight. He is going to think I have totally lost it.
Kathy Vanaria and Joyce in Papua New Guinea with Mesem New Testament
The Morning After
The next morning, as I was kissing my husband good-bye before I went off to work, I told him, “Oh…by the way…I booked my flights to Papua New Guinea last night”. He just gave me his “unbelievable” look like he does when I come up with ideas that I think are great and he thinks are well… let’s just say…not so great.
When I had got downstairs I had a voice mail on my cell phone. It was from Brady Forseth, the executive director of Starkey Hearing Foundation. He said he was traveling for 6 weeks throughout West Africa, India and the Philippines and had heard about Phil Rojak’s hearing aid need and he wanted to let me know that he believed he could help Phil. He mentioned that he wouldn’t be back into the United States for a couple of weeks, but left his contact info. I remember sitting in my kitchen with tears in my eyes, almost feeling scared of the immense power of God. Here was a man that I did not know, calling me from overseas, the morning after I had booked my tickets, to tell me he could help Phil with his hearing aids. I was stunned!
It Gets Even Better!
Phil with this new digital hearing aids!
But the ending gets even better, Phil was given not just one set of digital hearing aids that would enable him to hear better than he had ever heard before. But due to his remote location and challenging climate in Papua New Guinea, Bill Austin, the CEO of Starkey Hearing Foundation, provided a second set of hearing aids for back-up. This way Phil had an extra pair in case he needed to send the first pair in for repairs or calibration. They even supplied a self-address pre-paid envelope for him to mail them back in. Two sets of digital hearing aids, given for free. Something I couldn’t even fathom.
”God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! (Ephesians 3:20-21)
This is the God we are saying “YES” to. To Him Be the Glory!
Joyce is the founder and executive director of GapFill.org with a masters in nonprofit management. Visit our “Items Needed” tab on the GapFill.org website to see if God is calling you to “fill in the gap” for a missionary in need. To receive our blog posts automatically via email, enter your email address in the “FOLLOW GAPFILL VIA EMAIL” box on the right-hand side of the blog and click “Follow”.
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