What Faith Means To Us?

Just as Jon was inspired by the Nigerian bro (Obina) last Sun, Jon would love to extend his awe to you, readers…

From Obina:

There were three Americans from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who shared their testimonies on how God brought them to Nigeria for evangelistic mission. The 3 Americans were given a vision to go to Nigeria for evangelistic missions. Fyi, due to some political reasons, Nigerians has always faced with problems getting visas to United States and vice versa. Hence when the 3 Americans received this calling, they knew they were facing uphill task ahead, not to mention about their financial woes of getting the money for the air tickets to Nigeria as they were only, well, youth…

Knowing that it was a vision from God, they kept faith and went to apply for visas. True enough, they received their visas without any problem. What made it so miraculous was that it only took them a couple of weeks for the approval while people had spent months waiting but nothing happened… It was an affirmation by God for them to go ahead as per their vision.

However, the true test came as neither 3 of them had the money to buy the air tickets from US to Nigeria. So what they did is to pray earnestly to God for His intervention again… without knowing how. To show their commitment to God’s vision, they booked the air tickets to Nigeria in 3 weeks time, praying at the same time that some how the financial support would come. But neither of them knew what was going to happen. What they did is simply committing themselves to prayers.

As the days went by, nothing happened. Finally the day of departure arrived. There was still no sign of anyone coming forward with the financial support to help. They were worried and gathered to pray desperately. As they prayed, God gave them Words to go ahead as planned. Without any clue, they packed their luggages and headed to the airport.

They reached the airport on time and waited at the departure lobby hoping for a miracle. However as the time drew nearer to departure time, there was still no sign of anyone coming forward to offer them any money to pay for the tickets that they booked. Nothing much they could do but to continue praying for God’s miracle. 10 mins to the departure time, no signs of anything. 6pm - departure time, still no news. 5 mins passed departure time, nothing happened. All the while as they were waiting, they were constantly in prayers… just as they were about to give up hope, there was a special announcement made from the airport’s PA system asking for anyone who were supposed to head for Nigeria but had not board the plane yet. From that moment they knew God was calling out to them, hence they rushed to the counter as directed by the PA system…

Though they were unsure where they could find the money to buy the air tickets, they simply hurried there to find out more about the announcement made. To their astonishment, the counter staff told them that a cab driver just came minutes earlier, passed 3 air tickets to her as instructed by someone that there were 3 people waiting for these tickets to go to Nigeria, and left. And what made it so special was that the flight was also been delayed for half an hour for some reasons that allowed them to check in after the departure time. Without further hesitation they boarded the plane to Nigeria!

Now that was FAITH for you as almost all the people in YWAM (Youth With A MISSION) had experienced God’s grace on them as they kept faith in Him.

Now, how many of us would do such “absurd” things? Like most people, I would at least expect God to “provide” me with the money first or “planned ahead” before replying “YES” to God… What a shame…