Miracles at Briefing

Last week we were at the briefing conference preparing and sending off 3 of our international summer projects (mission trips)--Tokyo, East Asia, and the Dominican Republic. Paul and I had the privilege of coaching the Tokyo team. Gen and Heather, both recent grads of USC that will be interning with us at USC, are the team leaders. We got to spend a lot of time with them answering questions and helping think through things they will need as they lead project for the first time this summer. We also got to lead their entire team through some exercises to help them bond and prepare for life together in Japan.

As much fun as it was to spend time with the Tokyo team, the highlights of the week had nothing to do with us. God definitely worked some miracles during those 3 days. When all the students showed up and checked in Tuesday afternoon, they counted up the financial support they had raised. All-in-all they were over $40,000 short of what they needed. If they didn't have it all by Thursday night, some students would have to go home. So they all hit the phones (and computers), trusting that God did want them to go and that the money was out there somewhere. They only had about 36 hours to work...in between many meetings. The students were faithful to keep working and stepping out in faith, even those that had raised enough to cover thier own costs. By the time they all checked in on Thursday night, all was taken care of--everyone could get on the airplane! God brought in $40k in less than 2 days!!

But that wasn't all. There was another miraculous story to top it all off. One of the Tokyo students, Jack, had left home to come to briefing and realized he left his passport at home. So he had his mom overnight it to a staff memeber's family near the briefing location. On Thursday, even though the USPS showed confirmation that it had been delivered, it was nowhere to be found. Neighbors on all sides of the house (and even adjacent streets) were contacted trying to locate the package. The Tokyo team was getting on a shuttle to the airport at 8:10 am on Friday morning. Jack needed his passport or he would not be getting on the plane. Thursday night ended in much prayer, as it seemed impossible that the passport could be located in time. Then, at 6:45 am on Friday, another miracle occured. The owner of the house where the passport was supposed to be shipped to went out early to get some milk. Upon returning, he found a neighbor from the end of the street picking snails out of his yard for her pet turtle to eat. They struck up a conversation and before he went inside the nieghbor remembered something important--a package was mistakenly delivered to her house the day before. The passport had been found! Before 8 am Jack had his precious passport in hand and was ready to head to the airport with his team! All because of a hungry turtle--or because God is powerful and gracious!


Praise God for working miracles to send all these students to take the gospel to the world!