Aug 28, 2019 How God turned Sandy’s “survive” into “thrive.”

Sandy was having a really rough mission trip. Everything was going wrong. First his luggage got lost on the way to Papua New Guinea and he for struggled for several days to retrieve it.

He had everything in it, including his sermon kit! Then, once he got it back, it malfunctioned! Then as he was working that out, his glasses went missing and he couldn’t read a thing.

Now, here he was, standing on stage, in front of a crowd eager to hear about Jesus freezing cold because he hadn’t thought to bring a jacket. He was out of sorts, he was discombobulated and he was out of words.

Not only is the world out to get me, he thought, the devil is making a mess of this! In that moment, he just wanted to run off the stage, get on the next flight home and give up on this entire endeavor.

Then, Sandy remembered the advice his mission trip roommate Filip had given him while they were searching for his luggage: “We’ll get through this, Sandy! Filip said. We’ll do everything we can and even after we can’t do anything else, we have God on our side.

He would trust God to give him strength to persevere. Sandy took a deep breath.

He began to share his story with the audience. He told them if his personal struggles . How he’d come from North Carolina to Los Angeles, then to Sydney to Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen and finally rode three hours on a crowded bus to this spot in Wabag. And he told how God had been with him in every challenge, large and small.

Then he presented how we can trust and rely on our friend Jesus. How He is with us even when we are ready to give up and get the next flight home. After the meeting one night, a man approached him and shook his hand.

“I’ve been around Christians forever,” said the man. “I’ve heard the message of Jesus so many times, but I’ve never been willing to accept him. When I heard your story, when I understood how far you’d come just to speak of Jesus to us here, when I realized what trials you’d been throughÑI finally saw Jesus. I know now, because of you, that I also need to follow Him despite my resistance.”

The man is now studying for baptism and is an enthusiastic follower of Jesus. Sandy made it homeÑbut more importantly, the challenges he faced, inspired one more precious soul to rely on our friend Jesus and become a part of the thriving heavenly family of God.