Praise the Lord! We made it to Atlanta safe and sound. We met with the Project H.O.P.E. correspondent, Ryan Hurlburt. He directed us to our hotel room for the night. We had a brief devotional in the breakfast area and were briefed for the next week in Nicaragua. Our flight out is at 10:05 tomorrow, directly to Managua. We are all excited right now, and greatly anticipating tomorrow. Hopefully we will make it safely with no delays. Thank you all for your prayers. They are greatly appreciated. We will see what God has for us in this next week. I am sure we will be touched just as much as the people we are ministering to.
Will continue praying for safe travels and protection. God is good and I'm sure will do amazing things with each one you on this missions trip. Thank you for keeping us posted at home!
ReplyDeleteMichelle Nuss
Ahh! I'm so excited for you guys! You all are constantly on my mind and in my prayers! I know God has some amazing things in store for you all!
ReplyDeleteAnna Swoboda
I love being able to following you guys on this blog. I am praying for you all! Chris Pummel
ReplyDeleteI thought I should post this since I have told the story so many times... God is so good!!
ReplyDeleteAfter returning from Great Falls for basketball Saturday night, Ray and Landon were packing for the long awaited mission trip to Nicaragua scheduled to leave the next day Sunday. The packing list began with item #1: Passports.We discovered that Landon's passport expiration didn't fall within 6 months of the departure date as was required. After speaking with the local trip coordinator and also Ryan, the Atlanta-based trip coordinator, we were told Landon could not go on the trip. He would risk being sent home at Atlanta, or worse, unable to return to the U. S. We were told that the airlines don't mess around with the six month expiration date policy! Ryan said he was sorry and would try to get as much money back for us as he could.
You could imagine our horror at hearing this! Landon wasn't home when this news came as he made a quick trip to Grandma's to get another suitcase. Ray had to break the news to him when he walked in.
We were shell shocked- to say the least! We sat around the kitchen just stunned. Unbelievable! We had planned for this trip for a couple years, raised funds... and it came down to the night before the trip. Tears wouldn't come because we were too shocked. Ray lost all desire to go on the trip, but being one of the male chaperones, he felt he needed to go. Imagine, going on your son's senior mission trip- without him! Ugh! We didn't even notice when Eli slipped away to grab his Bible. We just heard a little voice reading... "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." He read some other verses and we stopped and prayed for a miracle. We went to bed for a very fit-full night of sleep.
Ryan called Sunday morning to confirm that he cancelled Landon's flights. "Oh, Lord, help us accept your will for Landon...."
We went to church and the tears began to flow as we sang songs about missions- it was our annual missions conference at church. Partway through the service Gale Heide tapped Ray on the shoulder and ushered us out of the sanctuary. He and Brian Forman and Bryan Robertus had been doing some research online and making phone calls on our behalf.
They discovered that Nicaragua is one of the few countries that has a bilateral agreement with the U. S. to waive the 6 month expiration date policy. It seemed that Landon's passport was not an issue after all. Bittersweet news- knowing that he no longer had tickets, the team was to leave in a few short hours, and the trip coordinators were both in church unable to be contacted.
Long story short- with fingernails being bitten.... Ryan was amazingly able to reschedule Landon on the same flights! Landon quickly packed his bags and we got him to the airport by 12:45(ish!). Praise God!!!
Certainly God's ways are not our own. As Job said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." We just usually don't see Him take and give in such a short amount of time!!
God answered in such an amazing way! Praise be to Him!
Julie- for the Gossacks :)