Author: Kiersten Caine
This past March, I had the honor and privilege of going on one of Central’s Global Connection Trips to Egypt, Israel and Palestine. I moved to Arizona from the Midwest to be at Central. January of 2016, I applied for a program that Central offers called Central Leadership Institute (CLI). Within this year long program, you not only get first hand experience working in a church, but you get to go on a global trip. Signing up for CLI, I knew that God was going to move me, speak to me, and stretch me in so many ways, but had no idea how.
The first part of our global trip began before we even left Arizona. Someone from Central’s Global team came and talked to us about what we were going to experience overseas, the language that we would be trying to speak, the people that we would get to meet, and the sites that we were going to visit. I could not contain my excitement when it came to talking about the Holy Land, “So your telling me we get to see where Jesus and Peter walked on water?! We get to experience what it was like to be sitting at the place that Jesus gave the sermon on the mound?! We even get to visit the church that Mary was at when the angel came to tell her that she was going to give birth to the son of God?!” I could not wait to land in Israel and get going! The only thing that was stopping me from getting to Israel was Egypt.
The way our trip was scheduled out was that we would be in Egypt for the first 9 days and then for the second half of the trip we would be in the Holy Land. When I heard this, sadly, I was not excited that over half of our trip would be in Egypt. I wanted to be in Holy Land the whole time! I wanted to sites, to see what Jesus saw, to learn where Jesus taught others, and to see where he was laid for three days. I honestly didn’t want to go anywhere else. It’s funny how God works though, and how he turns your plans upside down. The places and areas that I wanted to get over with actually stuck with me the most. God always moves you and breaks you in moments when you least expected it, if you’re open to Him. At least that is what he did for me in Egypt.
Of the entire trip, God moved me the most when we were on the train from Alexandria,
Egypt heading into the city of Cairo. While sitting on the train, I was looking out the window at miles and miles of farm land, poverty, run down homes, and garbage everywhere. But in one field, off in the distance, I saw someone: A man. A man in the middle of a dirt road leaning over his motorcycle. A man that looked defeated. A man that I will never meet and whom I will never be able to ask his story. A man that I will never be able to ask him what his name is, but still one year later, this man will not leave my head. This man that I know nothing about is someone that I think about and that I pray for all the time. This man will never know that he has this impact on my life. And what is that impact you might ask? I saw him in the middle of the day, on a dirt road, alone, yet I saw him. This man gave me a picture of God and how He sees us. We might think that we are in the middle of nowhere. No one is around us. We feel like no one cares. No one to talk to or will listen to us. We have nothing and we feel defeated. We feel broken, and we have nowhere to turn. But God sees us! He knows our hearts. He has felt what we are feeling. He gets our pain. He understands our loneliness. God sees all! I am reminded of the song “Reckless Love” when it says He leaves the 99 to find the 1. God never forgets about you. God leaves the 99 especially for you! This man in Egypt is and has been a constant reminder to me that no matter how I feel, God always sees me. God is always going to be right next to me no matter what! The trip that I went on was nothing that I thought it was going to be in all of the right ways. God spoke to me in ways and through people that I will never meet again. God had a funny way of teaching me about his love for me on this trip and I will never forget.
God sees me, and more importantly, he sees you.