Navigation Through Unchartered Waters (Cuba June 07)

This June trip to Cuba was definitely one for the books. This was my third trip to Cuba and MIA's tenth trip or so to Cuba overall. Well, as one person on our team put it so eloquently, "The honeymoon is over and the marriage has begun." This was so true for this trip. We experienced and had to deal with so many new things on this trip that were extremely challenging. Unfortunately, because of very serious and sensitive issues I can not go into a lot of detail. However, I learned so much on this trip that I could not have learned otherwise or in any other circmstance. God really taught me more deeply about what it means not to lean on my own understanding, but in ALL ways to acknowledge Him......and He did direct our path. How do you navigate through waters you have never been before? Or how do you navigate through calm waters that suddenly turn into a raging storm? Well, I think the best thing to do is to lean on the One who created the waters. Even before I left for this trip, I did not understand the full extent of what was going on in Cuba, but I took time out of the craziness and went before the Lord in intercession and dance. I acknowledged Him before it all, in the midst of it all, and praised Him in the circumstance and He directed my path. I gave it all to Him to carry because it was His burden (not mine) to work for good. I also learned more deeply to lay aside my expectations about what a trip is going to look like. This mission trip ended up being nothing like we thought it was going to look like because of very serious circumstances, yet God turned it around and did so many amazing and Kingdom advancing things . Looking back, I can see His hand in it all. Now, I don't know if what happened on this trip was what He originally intended, if He reordered our steps, or if it was just that He turned it into good. But, what I do know is that the Kingdom of God was advanced and we are following God through Gates that are being opened in Cuba and then ultimately the world.