Over the past 6 months God has really challenged me in my prayer journey. And I like to pray! Yet, I still had some faith stretching to do with my prayer life. God definitely used it to encourage others in my life and even open doors to new friendships! Prayer is an incredible gift!
Here is a backstory that lead up to a bold prayer….
Have you ever been outside of the US or even seen a movie where people were being stopped at checkpoints and had to pay a “fine” to get their things into the country? Well, that is real life here. Each year, we packed a specific way and PRAYED! Each year, we got to see how God took care of us and everything that He had us bring into the country.
The Bible says many things about prayer. From Philippians 4:6 it says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 it states that we are to “pray without ceasing,”. Matthew 21:22 that says “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”, hit differently when I was reading “God’s Smuggler” written by Brother Andrew. It was even more so when Billy read the book!
We were already praying for healing for Billy’s back, and an exact answer with course of action regarding my own health.
We were both challenged by his testimony!
So as we met with people leading up to our return home, we asked them to join us in praying for favor over us and all of the things we were bringing with us.
We asked God to blind the eyes of those who would want to profit from the Bibles we were bringing and even the personal items, as we were gifted a solar panel and a new tent for our camping missions among other things. We prayed that all of the luggage would make it WITH us. We asked for God to make a way and to make it known that He is God as only He can do. That way none of us could ever take credit.
After our first flight, our layover ended up being around 1 1/2 hours. We prayed for the luggage to be safely transferred to the next plane.
We boarded that final flight, reached out to the prayer team, and just breathed. As that was really all we could do. Haha As we were landing, I prayed quietly.
After arriving at the airport, we headed towards the area to get our passports stamped and see if they would approve our 3 month visa status. In line, we prayed silently.
The lady asked a few questions and then just stamped something. Honestly, we didn’t even look until we are at baggage claim. But
praise God, we got the 3 full months!
The luggage seemed to take forever. So we prayed for no markings or red flags on anything, and that EVERY suitcase would show up. We were there for quite a while before Billy saw the first bag. Slowly, the suitcases took the trip on the conveyor belt towards us. One by one, we glanced at them and saw nothing. Only one with a markings or anything. Billy continued to stack up the suitcases and we prayed.
Then we made our way through the final scanner. We were helped by a local and he helped us get everything through quicker than we would have otherwise.
Y’all we didn’t get stopped!
We arrived with ALL of our luggage; nothing broken and nothing out of place!
Well, I did crack an Oreo, but that was it. I did forget to close the lid to my lotion, but it was contained in my wet bag, and a very small amount.
I am encouraged and blown away, even though God did everything that we prayed for and more!
I can’t wait to see what He does next!