SOLD | Arrival

God has been in this season from the beginning!

To give you a fuller picture of just how much God has been in the process of getting me to SOLD, I need to backtrack a few months.

Back at the end of February, while completing the lecture phase of my DTS, I heard about this new school that YWAM LA was going to be running during the summer called SOLD (School of Leadership Development). After hearing a little bit about what it was about, I thought it sounded interesting and that maybe that was something I might consider doing. The only thing was that it was supposed to start on July 5th, just 2 1/2 weeks after I was to complete my DTS. That meant that if I did decide to come back for SOLD, I would only be home for a very short time. I pushed the idea out of my mind and didn't really think about it much for the next couple of weeks. Occasionally the thought of SOLD would come to mind and I would pray about it and ask God if that was something I should do. About a week or two later, during one of our lectures, a comment was made about how sometimes God will tell us what we are supposed to do and sometimes God will let us choose for ourselves. Another comment that was made was that sometimes what we are supposed to do doesn't make sense, but we just need to take a step and go for it. So I asked God if this was something I needed to decide for myself or if he was going to decide. One Sunday shortly after, I was sitting in church listening to was the pastor was saying and completely out of the blue, I had a thought. "I need to apply for SOLD". There was nothing that I can recall the pastor saying that could have triggered that thought. The only explanation I have is that God placed that thought in my mind. The thought was so definitive and clear that there was no doubting it. Up until that point, I had never been more sure of anything in my entire life. So that week I applied for SOLD.

I knew I had to apply, but I didn't know if I would be accepted. We left for outreach and I was content not knowing if I would be accepted or not. Every time SOLD was mentioned, I would talk about it as if I wasn't sure if I would be accepted, but in my mind I was thinking as if I would be accepted. While in the Philippines I found out that I got accepted. I could start planning what was next after DTS. And I knew that I was supposed to be in LA for the summer.

Going home I knew I had to think about how I was going to get the money to pay for SOLD. I was a little stressed about it for a short time while on outreach, but I was reminded to trust God with it. I knew that LA was where I needed to be and that if God wanted me there then he would make everything happen. So when I got home, I didn't know how, but I knew that the money would come. I still don't have all the funding that I need, but I trust God that I will get what I need because he is already providing.

Now onto July 5th when I left for LA. The day started off fine. My parents drove me to the airport with plenty of time before my flight. I made it through security and went through customs and that's where things got interesting. Since I had just been in the US for so long I had some issues getting through this time and it didn't help that I was missing a letter from YWAM that I required to pass through customs. I started to freak out a little because I didn't know what would happen if I couldn't get through. Very quickly I remembered that LA is where I needed to be this summer and God was right there with me and wanted me in LA, so somehow it would happen. The customs officer that was questioning me told me that if I had the letter I could go through. So I tried to get in contact with someone at YWAM but it was early and everyone was still sleeping. By the time my flight was supposed to leave I still didn't have the letter so I got escorted back to the check in desk and they booked me on a later flight (at no extra cost) so I had the day to get the letter I needed. That gave me about 9 hours to reach someone at YWAM and get them to create a letter for me. At this point I was running on 2 hours of sleep and was exhausted. I spent a few hours in the airport and tried to see if anyone was willing to get me out of the airport for a few hours. One of my aunts was amazing and picked me up and brought me to the place she was house sitting so I could take a nap and rest for a bit while I waited for the letter. By the time I needed to go back to the airport I had the letter I needed and tried again. I made it through security again and when I got to customs, I saw the officer that had questioned me before. Earlier in the day the officer told me that I should talk to him when I came back because he knew my situation and when I got back he was there waiting for me to come back! The fact that he was waiting was a miracle because he didn't know when or if I would come back and he was there right when I needed him to be. I showed him the letter and was immediately cleared to go through.

Through the chaos of that morning, God was there! I don't know why things happened the way they did and I don't know if I ever will. One thing I do know is that the enemy didn't want me here (in LA), but I have a God that is so powerful that he can make anything possible! I shouldn't even be here right now, but yet I am! God is at work and I'm so excited to see how God will continue to work over the next few months!