One of the very first items you’re told to buy on the World Race is a tent. The tent and your big pack are probably the most important purchases you’ll make. I felt led to give my tent to a squad mate, so a supporter ended up buying me a brand new one right before Launch (last January).
Not a “happy camper” when my tent poles broke 🙂
There are several reasons you might need a tent on the World Race. First, many ministry sites don’t have beds (the places where we serve are usually too poor to afford such luxuries). Normally we stay places that allow us to set up tents outside the ministry site; or sometimes we’re housed in an empty building that’s big enough to set up our tents inside.
In either scenario, tents allow for a safe place to sleep, protection from the elements, warmth when it’s cold, privacy for changing and quiet time, and a place to store personal belongings.
There’s also another big reason for tents – at least, it was a big reason for our route: mosquitoes.
Even if you’re blessed enough to be housed in decent shelter, there’s rarely (blue moon rarely) air conditioning in these countries, so open windows and doors are customary…but then so are mosquitoes, which means your risk for ugly diseases like malaria or dengue or chikungunya increases significantly.
On the Spanish Route, which takes missionaries through wet, rainy Latin America, we were going to be in places where mosquitoes (and these diseases) are very common.
My brand new tent lasted all of one month – it was February, while we were in the Dominican Republic. We experienced no bad weather, no strong wind, yet toward the end of the month, the poles started breaking. And as I took down my tent at month’s end, getting ready to leave that ministry site, the poles crumbled and shattered.
Snapped pole
So I was on Month 2 of my 11-month World Race mission, and already I was without that all-important tent.
I didn’t have the funds to buy new poles – heck, I didn’t even know if I’d be able to find poles in our next country (Bolivia). All I could do was pray and hope God would wield His power to put me in places where I wouldn’t need a tent.
Guess what He did?
Yep! I’m in Month 11, and I haven’t needed my tent once since the D.R. My team and I had proper beds in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador, and here in Guatemala.
Bunk beds in Ecuador
For the places where we didn’t have actual beds, we at least had decent shelter (houses, rooms, buildings) and places to set up hammocks. I just so happened to purchase a hammock that has a mosquito net, too (thank You, Holy Spirit!), so I was good to go on that front.
Plenty of room to hang my hammock on top of the church in
Peru – with perfect weather: nice, warm, and dry!
I’ve been waiting to write this blog post, hoping God would bless me all the way to the very, very end so I could sing His praises to His name and give Him ALL the glory. I’m glad I waited, because He saved the very best story for last.
A mix of hammocks and tents in Nicaragua
Arriving in Guatemala, we weren’t sure what to expect for accommodation. We were told beds and hot showers, but my teammate Sabrina has a cousin on a different World Race squad that was just here – at this very ministry site – earlier this year. Her cousin said they slept outside in tents.
If that turned out to be the case, I was gonna be in trouble. Guatemala is FREEZING where we’re at (in the mountains of Santo Domingo Xenacoj). I’m talking chilled-to-the-bone cold, and also pretty wet. Sleeping in a hammock would be brutal, and that was IF I could find a dry spot to hang mine up.
But God came through big time. Our host, Dave, told us that he was originally going to have us sleep where past teams had stayed (where Sabrina’s cousin had stayed). But at the last minute, they decided, “Eh, why not buy a place to house these teams that are coming in?”
Soooo….yeah. They bought a house right before we got here, put in bunk beds, and installed a hot shower. Coincidence?
Nope. There are no coincidences in the Kingdom. It’s all my Pappa, and He is GOOD.
God is bigger than anything that exists. He never misses a single detail. Nothing ever, EVER escapes His attention. But one thing I’ve learned on this Race is that, true, no problem is too big for Him. But even better…no problem is TOO SMALL.
God saw the problem with my tent (which was very minor in the scheme of things), and He worked everything out for me so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. He cared that I wasn’t going to have a tent the rest of the Race, so He made it where I wouldn’t need one.
He is a good God, and because of who HE IS (kind, merciful, thoughtful, gentle, humble), He blessed me abundantly. Praise God, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever! Ame
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
