In His Kingdom: there’s never ‘being late’ but always ‘being perfect’

Susie* is a recent believer from a closed country who came to faith through the BSM on her campus. She was commissioned as a Go Now missionary this summer and below shares about her excitement over obtaining her visa to be able to go on her assignment.

I have been waiting for my visa to go to my mission field for a long time and there are so many people praying for it. Finally, I got it today! My teammates have been there already there for a few days, but I will still be able to catch up with them and will not miss a lot. Our God is definitely a miracle working God. Not only that, His timing is always perfect and His plan is always better than ours! You may wonder why I would say so, even though my trip starts a few days late according to the schedule.

I still remember at our orientation we did not receive a schedule when we arrived, and sometimes ‘no schedule’ is probably the best schedule. Again, for each of us God already has a wonderful plan. Very often, there is no way for us to know in advance what His plan is until it is revealed and we are in awe. We tend to make plans and schedules to ensure everything is within our control. Whenever it goes out of control, we get panicked and worried. We tend to think our plan is the best and often forget that His plan is much better than ours. However, by trusting Him completely, our minds will get to rest in peace. We just need to follow whatever He has for us.

At first, I was anxious and worried while not hearing anything about the visa and knowing my departure time was approaching. I had been talking to God a lot and seeking an answer from Him, but He always said, “not yet, you need to be patient.”

Still, I did not lose heart and believed that if He wanted to send me, He would work it out. Otherwise, He may have another plan for me. Brenda also told me that if I could not get the visa, they may send me to another place. I told her I would be willing to go to any other place they may need me. As long as we are doing God’s work, it really does not matter where it is, right?

Then, it turned out God’s plan completely surprised and amazed me. Because my visa was late, I was able to meet up with a friend of my BSM director who just came back from traveling, and two other sisters from the States (one is also from Texas). They are doing an English summer camp here, which started the day right after I met them. I was able to help out with the camp for a few days. The camp is focusing on students from an unreached people group who come from outside of city and want to learn English.

During the camp, they took English classes and had group conversations where they got to learn and practice telling stories from the Bible in three languages. For some of them, it was the very first time to hear about these stories. It was so encouraging to see how curious the students are and how eager they are to learn. I did not have much experience with people from this unreached people group in my life and this time I got to know a lot more about them, their culture and language.

They always asked many questions and we discussed them in our group. Some of the questions were really interesting and some I had never thought about myself. For example: why in the beginning did all the animals eat plants, but nowadays some animals eat meat? While we were in discussion, it was so encouraging to see how these students found answers from the Bible themselves.

The two sisters have shared with me that when they first decided to come here, they wanted to go right after their graduation, but it did not work out that way. They worked in the States for a year instead before they could come. One worked with international students and the other worked as a teacher.

During that year, both of them got to grow a lot in their faith and the experiences made them much more prepared to come here. I suddenly felt exactly the same way. I told them that if my visa was on time I should have been gone already, then I would not have met them and been involved with the camp of unreached students. This experience also made me much more prepared to go now. What perfect timing!

Even though we could not know it in advance, we should trust His plan completely because in His kingdom there is never 'being late' but always 'being perfect'!

 *Name has been changed