Hey Daybreak family! Thank you so much for your prayers as we are here serving the IWs in Malta. Our travel day was long, but there were no real issues. Everything went smoothly. Well, ok, there was one snag - here is what happened: We arrived in the Malta airport with over 30 bags, including some very heavy totes with no wheels that contained homeschool supplies for one of the families. As we pulled our bags off the baggage claim carousel, we went to rent some much needed luggage carts. However, we discovered that the only way we could rent a luggage cart was with euro bills or coins - we could not use a credit card. And no one had cash yet. The ATM was on the other side of the security checkpoint, so we couldn't take money out either. As we began begging the "lost luggage" lady for a complimentary cart, one of the team members realized that she DID in fact have some euros. We were saved! Except, the cart machine wouldn't take her bill. We tried again. And again.... until we looked in the money slot, and realized that it wouldn't take her bill because there was already a euro bill stuck in the slot! God had already provided the money, we just didn't think to look for it. We got something thin in the slot, and retrieved the jammed bill. We crossed the baggage check area, and used the OTHER cart machine to get four luggage carts for all our luggage. Phew.
We arrived at our hotel late in the evening, and settled in.
Saturday was a slower day for us. No IWs have arrived yet, but we took the time to finish some last minute preparations, and to pray for the week. As some of the team members were praying, they were approached by an English couple staying at the hotel. After speaking with them for a short time, they revealed that they had been feeling discouraged at home, as though they were standing alone in their faith in a dark world. Seeing our team praying publicly like that was a great encouragement to them, and they joined in with us to pray for the week, and what we will be doing here.
As we look out over St. Paul's Bay, where Paul was shipwrecked, we realize that although there may be dark and stormy times in our lives, God is always working. We hold out that hope for this week as well. We are eagerly anticipating seeing God work in small and big ways.
Tomorrow the families start arriving - please be praying for us this whole week. There has been a mountain of prep that we've put into this week; we've done our part, and now we are just watching and waiting for God to show up. It's going to be amazing.
