Praises in the Rain

Sometime last fall I applied for an internship with Team Expansion for the summer, not knowing the journey that lies ahead. I did this because I just wanted to see how far I could go with Team Expansion, and I honestly didn't think I can make it this far. But God had other things in mind. It took them months to process my application, my profile, and my interview. During those months I continued to live life, not really giving the possibility of interning with this organization another chance.

It was December, and my parents visited my brother and I for their 25th anniversary and their 52nd birthday. Yes, it is a rare coincidence to have both a birthday and an anniversary at the same time.Quite frankly, my parents were born on the same day, December 3rd, and were married on their 27th birthday. Coincidence? I think not. Anyway, I was finally reunited with my parents on December 16th in Springfield, MO, and there our 2013 family Christmas trip began. It was during our trip when I checked my email and got the notification that I have been accepted into Team Expansion's Pathways 2014 internship program. I was stunned, and so were my family. We weren't expecting that I would get such an amazing opportunity, and as thrilled as we were, we were also terrified. The cost for this internship was $5000, and I was being sent to a closed country in Eastern Europe. 

Needless to say, after praying hard and debating on this internship, the verdict was that I back out from this program. The plan for me was to come back home to Indonesia, work as an intern in some school as my teaching experience for my TESOL degree, and then reapply for Pathways in the future. My family and I decided that I wasn't ready emotionally, spiritually, and financially to embark on this internship, so I agreed to withdraw.

A few weeks later, after my parents had gone back to Indonesia and I had sent the email of "resignation", I received an email from my coordinator persuading me that I should stay. As for the emotional, spiritual, and financial unreadiness, he said he never expected the interns to be ready when they were accepted into this program. So I prayed about this issue, and I knew that God wanted me to go. I still was not sure about how the money was going to come, but if this was God's flow, then He'll work it out. 

And God did work.

January and February were the dreariest months for me as I raised little money towards my funding. By the beginning of March I was convinced that I will never get to go to Eastern Europe. Yet while at choir tour, a supporter called me while I was on the bus, and he told me that he covered my plane ticket fund, which costs around $1500. All throughout April the funds kept coming in, and at the beginning of May I was fully funded. 

But the story doesn't stop there.

A few weeks ago my field coordinator called me and told me that I am no longer able to go to Eastern Europe because of visa problems. So, he sent me to the Middle East instead. Talk about shock and--well, more shock! Because of the change in field, I am currently learning how to read Arabic, in just less than a week. Don't get me wrong, Arabic is a beautiful language, but it's also a challenge if one learns the alphabet and the script form in less than two weeks' time. It's been a long time coming, and I hope by the end of this summer I can look back at all the tears shed and see the beauty behind it. I may never know why God suddenly decided to kick me into the Middle East, but I do know that God is good, and He will provide for me as He did with the funds. I realize I will never experience God's majesty until I undergo His mystery. 

With every trust test, there comes a surprise. 

-Renata Palit,

May 21, 2014