Getting There: Missions Trip Journey

The hardest part of obedience is rarely the big moment. It’s the middle, the “getting there,” when plans change, seats disappear, bags fly ahead without you, and you’re left wondering if you heard God right.

We talk through day two of a missions trip journey that starts with a standby flight that doesn’t work out and turns into a front-row seat to God’s favor. I share how He sends the right people at the right time in unfamiliar airports, how He steadies my heart when the path feels rushed, and how His grace outweighs the challenges. Along the way, Alaska’s shifting light, night skies, and snow-capped mountains become a reminder that God’s timing is bigger than mine, and His beauty can reset my faith when stress tries to take over.

Then comes the stretch that could shake anyone: weather issues, a small plane, bags left behind for safety, and flying over ice and ocean with unexpected peace. The lesson that stays with me most comes from a pastor’s words that echo the heart of the Gospel: do it for the one. When you stop chasing numbers and start serving one person with love, you find the courage to keep going, break cycles, and change generations one life at a time.

If you’re a woman of faith trying to trust God in hardship, wrestling with your calling, or simply needing Christian encouragement to keep saying yes, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s tired, and leave a review so more listeners can find hope. What’s your “one” right now?

My prayer is that this episode will be a blessing to you.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Positioned for Purpose Conversations. I'm your host, Carlette Marie. Yes. Our podcast is for women of faith who struggle to see God in their pain, in their hardship, and in their most challenging times. This is a gentle reminder that right where you are, yes, right there, God will use you in the mess, in your hardships and in your most challenging times, in your heartaches and in your pain. God has a plan for your story. Romans 8 28 states, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose.

Getting There And Saying Yes

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Welcome. On today's episode, I'll be talking about getting there. If you listened to day one of our missions trip podcast started yesterday, you'd have heard me talking about saying yes and what saying yes means in terms of God providing the provisions and just making the way clear. And today I want to share about getting there, the challenges, what I felt, and what did I hear God say? If today is your first time listening to Position for Purpose Conversations, hi, I'm Colette Marie. Welcome. Glad that you're here. Hope you will find the podcast a blessing to you. You're able to go back and listen to others, and I'd love to hear from you. So today, as I talk about getting there, um, so on June 18th, I actually thought that that was the day that I would get

Standby Stress And God’s Favor

SPEAKER_00 1:50

to go. Remember, I said yesterday that I was on a standby flight and it did not work out. But I just felt though when I look back at the day and to see how it felt rushed, I felt unprepared. Just a lot of things as you're going on ministry, you just feel as if you know something wasn't right. And I kind of had a feeling based on something that the Lord had said to me in the morning that that day was not going to be the day that I was gonna get on a flight, and true to form, I did not, and I ended up, I checked my bag in, and then there was not enough seats on the flight, so my bag went ahead on me to Chicago, and there I was in Fort Lauderdale, and um just the way how God just worked it out for me to get on the next day to go on a flight to get there, and I was able to just to see the favor of God and the hand of God in that because He provided what I needed. My first leg was with United, and I had a great experience both at on United and on Delta, picking up my bag in Chicago and getting to the next leg of the journey. It was smooth. I'd never been to those airports before, and so you know, I was wondering, you know, how would I have managed? But I trusted the Lord and asked him to just give me a favor, that he put me in in touch with the right persons who I could ask questions and who would just get me to where I needed to go. And can I tell you that happened? The Lord just just allowed persons, the right persons to come and that I could ask, that they could walk with me, that they could point me to where I need to go. And even claiming my bag at the American Airlines Counter, that just that was just also a great experience itself. Like just along the way, the Lord was showing me what yes looks like. It's it's not devoid of challenges, but the favor and the grace that he gives far outweighs any other challenges that I would face.

Awe In The Night Sky

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I remember as I was sitting on the flight, leaving Chicago, going to Seattle, and I was just amazed when you look in the heavens, and just amazed to see there is no nightfall and just seeing the beauty of God, leaving Seattle, and then on my way to Anchorage, just leaving from these three different time zones at this point in time and going to see like the dawning somewhere else, like it was daylight somewhere else. And I said, God, you are amazing, you are amazing. I'm so thankful that this flight was during the night. I was able to experience what happens during the day, and in the night I was able just to behold your glory, to see the difference in the in the night sky, and then just to to see when we were going into Anchorage, just to see those snow-capped mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. We landed in Anchorage about 1 05 a.m. And then getting my bag and then going to the airport. It was beautiful coming outside because remember, I'm accustomed to morning and night, day and night. So going somewhere else where my body is telling me that I should be asleep and going somewhere else where I'm seeing it is still light out. Was I don't know if I have any word to describe it more than just to say how awesome God is. How awesome God is.

Strength For The Journey

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Before I had to get up and get ready, we get ready to to leave, to go to Kotzebue, and then from there we would go to Point Hope. But even in that, I saw the Lord just keeping me, just preserving me. I didn't have a headache, I had no blood pressure issues. The way my body adjusted to that is like it's for me, it's simply amazing. I remember my mom said she was worried because she knew I didn't get much sleep, and she was wondering, you know, how my body um would have held up. And I said, Mom, my body held up real good. I I did not even feel tired. I don't know if it was the adrenaline, I don't know if it was the excitement or a mixture of both, but all I know is that God was absolutely amazing in all of that. So even as I think about what I felt when I got there, I just felt this overwhelming feeling like I'm in the plan of God, I'm in the will of God, that He ordained and orchestrated all of this for me to be here, right? One of the lessons I think it was is just a matter of what it costs when you say yes. That saying yes, being obedient is something that is very, very, very important. And even that we can say yes despite the challenges that we're having as well. So this overwhelming feeling like yes, Lord, I am where you want me

Weather Delays And Quiet Peace

SPEAKER_00 8:09

to be. I felt like I was a part of the people just when we left Kotsibu, and that had its own challenges because there were weather issues, and so we couldn't leave Kotsibu to go to Point Ope. It would have taken us a couple other hours, and by the time they decided the pilot decided that yes, they would go, all almost all our bags had to be left because at this point in time they had to have more fuel just in case of any emergency. And I just want to give God thanks for that because evening that we just saw his hand at work, I remember us just going over. I think at the time it would be the Arctic Ocean and just seeing the sea, the ice, you know, some parts breaking up and some parts still solid. I would never have witnessed that before. And I remember you know, people were talking talking about being in those small planes, how it you know can be a little bit scary. Guys, I felt nothing like that. I had absolute peace, and I'm telling you, I know it was God because I know under any other circumstances, in that small, if in a big thing, I have a challenge, much more a smaller, a smaller engine plane, but which is basically was a nine-seater, excluding the captain. Listen, I felt all I felt was just this peace, and I was enamored with what I was seeing around me, seeing the oceans, just seeing the beauty of what God had, and when we landed there, wow, the cold,

Prepared For The Cold Call

SPEAKER_00 9:44

the cold, the cold, the cold. It was like a slap, but I'm thankful that our leader had already told us to dress. So that is the next thing. You have to be prepared for where you're going. So when we're leaving out that morning, so even though it wasn't as cold in Anchorage, it was about in the 50s, when we got to Cuttsaboo, it was 30 something that felt like 14 degrees. And for me, who is uh coming from a hot climate, that was listen, was hard to it. It was hard, but I as I said, I enjoyed feeling that cold. I enjoy feeling that cold. And just when I was there and just the planing and then meeting the pastors and you know traveling to the space, it was just seeing the landscape. There are no trees, no anything like that. That I've never experienced that going to a space where I've not ever seen any trees. But guys, I was not daunted by what I saw. There was just this love that enveloped me for a people I had not yet met, a community I had not yet met. Just this feeling that God, because remember, I went with no expectations, so I would be just in awe of whatever God did at that space. And I remember that same Saturday afternoon, having a conversation with the pastor, just finding out, you know, what made him come there and what was it like, and he was, you know, sharing his background with me. And I and I said, Lord, I thank you that we can do hard things

Do It For The One

SPEAKER_00 11:24

when you call us to move. But then the pastor said something to me, and this is what we're gonna talk about. What did I hear? When he talked to me about there was, you know, I asked him if he ever felt like giving up, and he said no, because he had to do it for the one. That thing has stuck with me because the Lord left the 99 to go look for the one, and he said that's to stay for that one, and all kept ringing in my head, that one. We came here for that one, not a group of people, one, because when we look at group and we start looking at numbers, when the numbers don't add up, we tend to get disappointed and disheartened. But if we go with the mindset, whatever we are doing, that we want to impact one person, because that one person impacts one other person, we are changing generations, we're breaking cycles that one person can do that. So that thing that I heard was that we do it for the one. So if we think of giving up, remember the one whom we are called to serve. If God has called you to do something, remember the one that He needs you to impact. Remember that. And so when we when when I finish with that conversation, and you know, almost a month later, it is still ringing in my head that all I need to do is to remember that one person. So I don't know where you are today in your journey and what God is calling you to do, but I'm asking you not to give up because of that one, because of that one. Because getting to where God is calling you to will demand something from you, and you'd have to be willing to give that thing, you'd have to be willing to say yes, to give up something for God so that he can work something greater, something bigger, something more impactful within your life. And yes, you will have challenges because I had challenges, but this podcast will not be one that I'm gonna be dwelling on the challenges. The fact that even in the challenges, God gave me favor, he showed me grace, he showed me that as I trust him, it doesn't matter what the challenges are, that he'll walk ahead of me. And once I say yes, I'll see the path open up before me. He'll make a way when there feels to seems to be no way. When I think of what I felt, which was the love for a people I had not yet met. The only persons I'd met at that point in time was the pastor and his wife. And I immediately felt just such a love for them, and I've never met them, and that feeling has lasted, so there's no need to have you know people of different color or whatever status they have in life. God wants us to love everyone else. And what did I hear? I hear do it for the one, do it for the one. Don't be concerned about the large numbers. God left 99 to go search for the one. That one person needs your voice, needs to hear your story, needs to hear your testimony, need to hear you talk about the goodness of God and what he has done for

Keep Saying Yes

SPEAKER_00 14:43

you. So I pray that today, on day two, that you are encouraged, that in the process of getting there, God walks with you, that you are not alone, that he loves you with an everlasting love. It doesn't matter what it is, we're not gonna quantify what the call is. What we're going to do is to say, Yes, Lord, here I am. Send me. Have an amazing day. Have an amazing day. Let's pray.

Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Spirit of the living God, I thank you, I praise you, I honor you for who you are. You are the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the I am that I am, you are the many breasted one. And so, Lord, I place my friend, my sister before you today. Lord God, you know where they're what they're going through. You know what you have called them to know, you know the challenges that they're faced with right now. But I pray, Spirit of the Living God, that they'll know that once they accept you and say yes to you, even in the challenges, they will see you showing up time and time and time again. Thank you for blessing them with favor. Thank you for the open doors and almighty God be with them today. Have your way, Lord God. In your name I pray with thanksgiving. Amen and amen.