Just a few weeks ago on July 7th they left for the airport to fly to Australia for a Mission Trip. Tickets in hand, cameras packed, the sixteen youth and four leaders headed off. A quick stop for lunch changed the entire trip. Returning to the car after lunch they found that they had been robbed. All the tickets, all the passports and about $12 000 in cash was gone. Their plane was set to leave that afternoon.

The first reaction was, quite naturally, one of disbelief and devastation but remarkably, not anger. Arriving at the airport those in the car had the job of telling the others what had happened and facing the prospect of telling everyone back home. But far from ending, their trip had just begun.

As they stood in the airport the attitude among the teens who range in age from 15-18, was one of hope and action. They gathered together and prayed and then started singing right there in the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, a busy, international port. A passerby saw the group and asked if he could phone the local television station suggesting that “sometimes criminals have a heart and if they know who they hurt they might at least return the passports.” The TV crew arrived and pictures of this group of teenagers not ranting with frustration, but singing, formed the lead story for four days.

The group was then contacted by United Airlines and told that while Australia could not let them into the country without passports, if they could get the passports replaced the airline would honor all the tickets. Joyce Panzero who lead the group along with her husband Ron says, “this was the first of what I call miracles. . . the airlines do not honor stolen tickets.” In this case not only did the airline agree to honor the tickets, they did it at no cost to the group. Right around this time donations began to come in and thus far $9000 of the stolen $12 000 has been replaced by donors. The next step was to try and get passports.

Phone calls were made. A local photographer was contacted to take new passport pictures and offered not only to rush them, but to donate them to the group. Through the assistance of two US Senators and a notary public the group arrived at the Federal Building Monday morning where they were ushered into a separate room and saw all 20 passports processed in three hours! The considerable cost of these new passports was covered by a local church and it looked like the group would be on its way. At this point it was time to book another flight but the next available flight to Australia didn’t leave until the following evening. Committed to not going home until the trip was over the group was contemplating spending the night in the airport when someone suggested phoning a local hotel to see if they could get some kind of discount.

Joyce phoned a friend who works as a travel agent, told her their situation and asked her if she could try to find them a discount on four rooms close to the airport. The friend promised to “see what she could do” but that hardly prepared Joyce and the group for the phone call they got half an hour later. The friend phoned back to say that she had got them four rooms at the Marriot Hotel [for those of you outside North America, Marriot is one of the finer chains of hotels, catering mostly to business class travelers]. Joyce remembers thinking “even with a BIG discount we couldn’t afford the Marriot” but the friend assured her that the hotel had given them a great deal: all four rooms free of charge and a free shuttle to and from the airport.

The next day the group boarded the plane and did arrive in Australia, safe and sound and with quite a story to tell. The group all attend Christ the King Community Church Youth Group, and were traveling to Australia to attend “Youth Torrent” a Christian youth outreach. As they describe the events, “God just took over”. As Joyce notes, “the lives and the hearts of our group have been changed forever because we saw first hand God restoring what was taken away”. It was their faith in God and a personal relationship with him that gave them the ability to sing when it looked like the trip was over before it had even started. And it is God that they credit with bringing so many events together to get them on that plane.

Take a look at your life.  How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times.  There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget.  In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new.  What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope

If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.

Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.