God's Unmerited Favor

I spent the past ten days in Indonesia at the Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering and experienced so much of God's favor during my time there that I just had to share...

I arrived at Jakarta, Indonesia 
I cannot take it for granted that just because I set out to attend this conference, it was a guarantee that I would arrive.

There are some who were unable to raise even funds to purchase their tickets, so they could not come.

There are some who were able to raise sufficient funds, but were unable to secure visas, so they could not come.

There were some who secured letters granting them visa on arrival status but when they arrived in Indonesia, immigration officials refused to allow them into the country, so they were put on a plane and sent back to their home country.

There were those who secured visas and were en route to Indonesia but they had to turn back because of a sick family member. I am grateful that even though Daddy was hospitalised with angina while I was away, there were family and friends in Trinidad who were able to give the necessary support.

My delays were minimal
Anyone with experience traveling knows the uncertainty of delays - no matter how much time you leave for your connections, you can never tell when, just before take off, the pilot will notice an open panel below the plane, so they would have to call in the engineers to check it out and make sure that nothing serious happened. Having to connect in multiple countries with different airlines is always risky, so I do not take it for granted when I arrive at my destination.

My flights were not cancelled
Some people had their flights transiting through Hong Kong cancelled on the way to the conference, since the airport was shut down due to a storm in the area. Others were stranded in Dubai when an Emirates flight crash landed on the runway and the entire airport was shut down while the authorities were handling that incident. I had no issues with my flights from Trinidad to New York to London to Dubai to Jakarta, gracias a Dios.

My luggage arrived
Some of you know the story of what happened with my luggage the last time I travelled to Asia for a YLG conference, ten years ago. The short version of the story is that it arrived 3 days after I did. This time, I got my luggage on the same day :)

I did not get sick
Having to operate on minimal sleep due to jet lag, long conference days and different foods, there were many who got ill and had to miss parts of the conference. There was one particular day when I was almost sure I was coming down with the virus, but I didn't. After the conference, many were fighting bacterial infections, norovirus, chikungunya and typhoid fever so please pray for their speedy recovery.

I got a free loan from strangers
I arrived one day before the conference started in order to get some rest and adjust to the time difference. On arrival at the airport, we were advised to change our funds when we get outside, in order to secure a better rate, so I arrived in the evening at our hotel with no local currency. It was close to 9pm and when I enquired at the hotel reception, they said that there were no places nearby where I could change money. However, they offered to loan me enough money to pay the taxi fare that would get me to the mall where I could do so the next day. Talk about favor!

I got a free dinner
On the first night, I decided to buy dinner in the hotel, because it was late and I was hungry and tired. However, when I got to the restaurant, the staff asked if I was part of YLG and then directed me to the ballroom for dinner. It turns out that the YLG mentors had a meeting that night which included dinner, and there was a lot of food left over, so I got free food :)

There were no incidents in Indonesia
With the increased frequency of attacks happening all around  the world today, we do not take it for granted that we were able to enter and leave Indonesia safely. There were security measures put in place in the event that anything happened, and we were grateful that we didn't have to use them.


It's things like these that make me feel like I am Daddy's spoil chile, as I see the hand of God so clearly in ensuring that I am well taken care of as I walk in obedience to His calling.