Of God's Secrets

My family is really big into Christmas traditions, as I'm sure most families are.  We get milkshakes from Big Al's and drive around looking at lights, go to church Christmas Eve, draw names out of a hat for secret santa, and eat a lot of food on Christmas day.

Last year there was some debate amongst the Goddard clan, whether to continue in our tradions or chuck it all and go somewhere exotic the following year.

This is where the story gets interesting and God plays a little game with me.  You see I heard this conversation completely differently than the rest of my family did.

Dad:  "So I work with a guy who has a time share in Fiji and he offered to let us use it for Christmas this year."

Jill:  "What???  And you're telling us now?"

Jessica:  "No!  That would be horrible.  I like our traditions.  Christmas should be cold.  Not islandy."

Me:  "I kinda think it would be awesome.  I just wanna go somewhere outside of the U.S. for once."  Lord, that would be sooo awesome.  I wanna spend Christmas in Fiji next year.  

And so on and so forth went the debate.

Fast forward to September a week or two from my departure...

Jessica:  "Where are you going on outreach?"

Me:  "I don't know.  I mean probably some Islands.  Like Fiji.  Haha maybe I'll spend Christmas in Fiji after all."

Jessica:  "You mean Tahiti?  Dad said Tahiti."

Me:  "....You're totally wrong.  I swear he said Fiji."

Jessica:  "I know he said Tahiti because I'm scared of Fiji and would have thrown a fit."

Me:  "You DID throw a fit.  He said Fiji."

Enter Jillian.

Jessica:  "Jill, did dad say that his coworkers time share was in Fiji or Tahiti?"

Jill:  "Tahiti."

Me:  "WHAT??  There is NO way.  I swear I heard Fiji."

Enter Mark.  Repeat conversation.

Enter Dad.  Confirms that he did indeed say Tahiti.

How could I have gone a whole year thinking he had said Fiji??  What is wrong with me?

Fast forward to the night when our outreach locations are announced.  I knew in my heart Fiji would be one of them.  I was right.  We took ten minutes to pray about it and confirm it.  I remembered the conversation from the year before.  And I knew Fiji was my location.

There were so many people who signed up for the Fiji/ Line Island outreach that they made two teams. One team would start on Christmas Island and the other would start on Fiji, then we would switch.

Guess who is spending Christmas on Fiji?  That's right.  This kid.

I am still needing a lot of support for this portion of the trip.  If you feel led to support me you can give here:http://ywamships.net/give/

Thanks guys!

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