Last month some of the Fusion Team took part in Escape and Pray. The adventure involved flying to an unknown country with no money or connections to bless the students and churches in that city, relying entirely on God's provision. Here are the team's reflections and stories from their time.
On Thursday 5th June, filled with anticipation, I boarded a train on my way to Luton airport. I had no idea where I was going. I knew it would be somewhere in Europe, somewhere with students and universities, but I knew nothing else. I had a bright orange envelope in my back, with the words ‘DO NOT OPEN UNTIL AIRPORT’ written in bold across it. Within was concealed the name of our destination. Our mission, wherever we ended up, was to bless the church and to bless students in the city in which we found ourselves. We especially wanted to bless those churches working with students in their ministry. What made this mission more of challenge, besides not knowing the location of our visit until a few hours before our flight, was that we had no accommodation waiting for us, nor any connections in the city to which we were heading. Inspired by Jesus sending out the 72 in the gospels, we were also taking very little with us for the journey. We had no cash on us, and our intention was not to pay for anything for the whole trip – but instead to rely upon God’s provision through the kindness of strangers for all our practical needs: food, accommodation, the lot!
Josh, Barnaby and I entered the airport together – nervous excitement bubbling from us. We opened the envelope.
LUBLIN, POLAND
The excitement level rose somewhat, and maybe the nerves too. It was suddenly real. None of us had ever heard of Lublin before we’d opened that envelope, but we would now be boarding a flight there in a few hours!
We began to pray – prayers we’d never quite prayed before – that God would feed us, that he’d help us find somewhere to stay, that he’d guide our every step so that we’d meet the right people…
The city was beautiful when we entered it. We walked up stone cobbled streets, lined with cafés and bars, a grand castle in the background, tourists strolling by eating ice-creams in bliss, and the sound of a boy busking as he plucked his classical guitar. It was idyllic. We were suddenly struck with the yearning to be tourists. How wonderful it would be to sit and enjoy a pizza in the sun, or eat an ice cream as we wandered through the old streets! We looked down at our t-shirts that read ‘PILGRIMS NOT TOURISTS’ and walked on, our stomachs beginning to grumble a little.
About 6.30pm, we sat down on a bench to pray.
“God we’re hungry, and we need somewhere to sleep, but you know that, and you know where we need to go, so please show us!” so our prayers went, or something like that.
At this point, in my mind’s eye, I saw a picture of a fountain. We thought it was thus best to see if we could spot a fountain and go from there. Walking away from the Old City, we spotted only 10 minutes later, a fountain… Ok, so what now? What did God have for us here? Maybe we should talk to someone? I then spotted a woman with a strange kind of cross around her neck. We walked past her, but as we did so, I felt a prompting that I should go back and talk to her, so I did.
I asked her about her cross, and she explained that she was a missionary to Poland from Ghana! It turned out she was heading home the next month, feeling a little discouraged after her faithful service without much visible fruit. We were able to pray with her by the fountain and affirm that God saw the faithful work she had been doing all those years. She was so encouraged and thanked God for leading us to her! She marvelled – perplexed and amazed at these three British men with their strange pilgrimage. I did chip in that part of our mission was to spend no money – and that we didn’t have any food or place to stay – hoping that she might offer to help us practically. She did not. She did, however, say that Father Adam at the Catholic University might be able to help us...
