7 of 14: Crossing the Sea

When we took our survey trip to Milan in 2007, our European connection was Frankfurt. As we were going through immigrations, we were asked where we were going, where we were staying, why we were there, how long will we be here, "let me see your return tickets.”

When we drove to the airport on September 28, 2009, we had one-way plane tickets and no visas. No idea whether God would part the sea for us, or if we'd be staying with Randall's parents till we got a plan B. We flew from NW Arkansas to Chicago to Frankfurt to Venice. During each connection, i would sit down in the waiting area to pray while Randall obtained our boarding passes for the next flight.

When we passed through immigrations in Frankfurt this time, the official looked at our passports, asked Randall if we were his family, stamped our passports and sent us on our way. No other questions!

When we arrived in Venice, there were several officers with dogs waiting at the exit to look over everyone's papers. However, by the time we gathered all our trunks and suitcases and went out the door, there was no sign of them anywhere. Only Titus waiting to take us home.

I still cannot think of those 2 days without sobbing. We had never witnessed such a profound miracle of God as we did during that trip.

God You reign, God You reign;

Forever and ever, God You reign! – Lincoln Brewster

Email from us on 9/29/09

“Glory Hallelujah! We made it, we are here, in Vicenza, at Titus & Angie's apartment. God came before us, and so we had NO problems at any of our connections. At XNA, most of our trunks were overweight, but they didn't charge us fees for them, and they even wrapped them in their special tape for us (we could only find 1 TSA approved luggage lock, so we were just hoping for the best.

What we know is that there is NO reason why we should have made it here on one-way plane tickets and no visa, except for the faithfulness, provision and deliverance of God. And we ARE here. It is so overwhelming - such a mixture of excitement and terror - it's kind of like bungie jumping and hoping the rope will catch you. We are on a whole new level of trusting God - for EVERYTHING. As i said back in July when we first bought our plane tickets without having "all our funding up front", that if we got to Venice it would be because God provided what we needed, as we needed it.”