63. Joshua – Experiencing God’s grace in Europe
Name: Joshua, and family & friends
Date: December 2007
Location: Europe
We just returned from a 2-week holiday in Europe with the children, and with a few good friends. We had a good time of fellowship in the gospel of grace with our friends, Edwin & Janice.
We spend our time mainly in London, followed by a tour of Spain. Prior to the trip, and during the trip, we encountered many challenges, but we thank God that all things worked together for good for His beloved children.
We had booked a tour of Spain well in advance with a local tour agency but three weeks before the tour, we received news that the airline had overbooked capacity and had to drop the tour groups (lower margin). When we tried to book alternative land-tour packages, everything had been sold out prior to Christmas. We visited many tour agencies and all the tours were fully booked and closed.
It was a stressful time and there were moments that we felt like giving up. However, Janice managed to reserve the last few seats on the flight to Spain. If we were to get 7 seats (not one or two) on a land-tour under those circumstances, it would have to be a miracle.
Two weeks before the date, I made a call to a tour operator in the US and the person on the line told me what I had heard many times before – “the tour is full and closed”. But we asked God to open the way refusing to give up. Before he hung up, he said he would try to call the land-tour operator to see if they could open up a new coach (they had fully booked two coaches already). He reverted within the next day confirming that they had opened up a new coach for us!!! After receiving negative answers for a week, we were quite shocked to receive positive news. It was a miracle.
Because of the change in the schedule of the tour of Spain, we found ourselves with extra days to spend in London, where we were transiting on our flight. It was an extra extension that came as a bonus. The bad news of the initial cancellation turned out for good. All things work together for good for God’s children, even if it starts off as a problem.
During our trip in Spain, which cut over Christmas, some of the tourist attractions were fully booked. There was a top tourist attraction in Granada called the “Al Hambra”. We were initially told that we may not get the tickets to go in. But the following day, we received news that we managed to get some tickets for our coach. There were two other coaches under the same company that did not get the tickets to go in. When we were there in the morning, there was a huge crowd and there were announcements that tickets had been sold out even for the afternoon. We felt so relieved and blessed to get the tickets because of God’s unmerited favor.
During our last day in Barcelona, our friend Edwin had his bag stolen along with his camera. There were three people working in-hand, one to distract the tourists and the others would then steal the belongings. Being alert, he realized it immediately and managed to catch one of the three. Another Irish tourist who was also robbed earlier, managed to catch another of the three. So the syndicate was busted with the majority caught.
The Lord protected Edwin & our friends and two of the three thieves were caught. Edwin made a police report at the police station, and took the experience as part of the adventure of the trip. There was no financial loss as the insurance company would replace Edwin’s camera with a brand new one. He said that the old one had started to give some problems, so a new camera was more than welcomed. None of the photos were lost as they had been downloaded to the laptop daily.
During the trip in London, I fell ill because of the cold weather and the strong winds. It was sub-zero some of the mornings. During those few days, I didn’t even have the energy to pray. All I did was to cry out the name of “Jesus” – the special name that could deliver me. The name of Jesus means Savior. When we are sick, our Savior comes to heal us. He saves us as our Healer.
And the Holy Spirit brought one verse to my mind to meditate upon. Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. I meditated on the Spirit of life who was at work in my body – giving life to my mortal body in the same way that He had raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11). I allowed the Holy Spirit to help me visualize Jesus healing the sick in the Gospels books. By the time we had flown from London to Madrid, I had recovered.
Our friend Janice was also down with food poisoning, but as she trusted in the power of God, she also bounced back to health in a day. In spite of the challenges, all of us depended on the grace of God, experience the power of His deliverance and His protection, and we thank God for a fruitful holiday.
Date: December 2007
Location: Europe
We just returned from a 2-week holiday in Europe with the children, and with a few good friends. We had a good time of fellowship in the gospel of grace with our friends, Edwin & Janice.
We spend our time mainly in London, followed by a tour of Spain. Prior to the trip, and during the trip, we encountered many challenges, but we thank God that all things worked together for good for His beloved children.
We had booked a tour of Spain well in advance with a local tour agency but three weeks before the tour, we received news that the airline had overbooked capacity and had to drop the tour groups (lower margin). When we tried to book alternative land-tour packages, everything had been sold out prior to Christmas. We visited many tour agencies and all the tours were fully booked and closed.
It was a stressful time and there were moments that we felt like giving up. However, Janice managed to reserve the last few seats on the flight to Spain. If we were to get 7 seats (not one or two) on a land-tour under those circumstances, it would have to be a miracle.
Two weeks before the date, I made a call to a tour operator in the US and the person on the line told me what I had heard many times before – “the tour is full and closed”. But we asked God to open the way refusing to give up. Before he hung up, he said he would try to call the land-tour operator to see if they could open up a new coach (they had fully booked two coaches already). He reverted within the next day confirming that they had opened up a new coach for us!!! After receiving negative answers for a week, we were quite shocked to receive positive news. It was a miracle.
Because of the change in the schedule of the tour of Spain, we found ourselves with extra days to spend in London, where we were transiting on our flight. It was an extra extension that came as a bonus. The bad news of the initial cancellation turned out for good. All things work together for good for God’s children, even if it starts off as a problem.
During our trip in Spain, which cut over Christmas, some of the tourist attractions were fully booked. There was a top tourist attraction in Granada called the “Al Hambra”. We were initially told that we may not get the tickets to go in. But the following day, we received news that we managed to get some tickets for our coach. There were two other coaches under the same company that did not get the tickets to go in. When we were there in the morning, there was a huge crowd and there were announcements that tickets had been sold out even for the afternoon. We felt so relieved and blessed to get the tickets because of God’s unmerited favor.
During our last day in Barcelona, our friend Edwin had his bag stolen along with his camera. There were three people working in-hand, one to distract the tourists and the others would then steal the belongings. Being alert, he realized it immediately and managed to catch one of the three. Another Irish tourist who was also robbed earlier, managed to catch another of the three. So the syndicate was busted with the majority caught.
The Lord protected Edwin & our friends and two of the three thieves were caught. Edwin made a police report at the police station, and took the experience as part of the adventure of the trip. There was no financial loss as the insurance company would replace Edwin’s camera with a brand new one. He said that the old one had started to give some problems, so a new camera was more than welcomed. None of the photos were lost as they had been downloaded to the laptop daily.
During the trip in London, I fell ill because of the cold weather and the strong winds. It was sub-zero some of the mornings. During those few days, I didn’t even have the energy to pray. All I did was to cry out the name of “Jesus” – the special name that could deliver me. The name of Jesus means Savior. When we are sick, our Savior comes to heal us. He saves us as our Healer.
And the Holy Spirit brought one verse to my mind to meditate upon. Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. I meditated on the Spirit of life who was at work in my body – giving life to my mortal body in the same way that He had raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11). I allowed the Holy Spirit to help me visualize Jesus healing the sick in the Gospels books. By the time we had flown from London to Madrid, I had recovered.
Our friend Janice was also down with food poisoning, but as she trusted in the power of God, she also bounced back to health in a day. In spite of the challenges, all of us depended on the grace of God, experience the power of His deliverance and His protection, and we thank God for a fruitful holiday.
posted by Joshua Lye @ 8:42 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home