The flight of a lifetime...

Current mood: excited
Category: Travel and Places

My life is an adventure and I wouldn't want to have it any other way... this is truly becoming my motto! So here's the breakdown of the latest:

My mom dropped me off at the airport Tuesday morning and at first it was just like any other trip: check in, go through security, wait for boarding... the usual. The plane was a bit late which wasn't anything out of the ordinary. So we board, and of course my seat is smack in the middle of the plane and I'm sitting between two people, an older woman who is very friendly (and very fussy) and a quiet young man. Well the woman and I start chatting and I tell her I work at a Christian school and we talk about that for a while, just waiting for the plane to take off... well it doesn't. We sit in it for about two hours waiting while they fix the broken cargo door. There went my connection in DC... Somewhere in the last half hour the quiet man decides he wants to talk to us as well. By then everyone on the plane is talking and getting to know each other. People are beginning to get impatient and antsy, not to mention mad about missing their connections. While everyone is complaining, my neighbors are very puzzled by my good attitude about the whole thing. It honestly didn't get to me at all. I was completely calm and happy and joking around and just enjoying life! They marveled at it... Finally, our flight got cancelled because they couldn't fix the door and we had to get off the plane to re-book our flight. So all 180 of us had to stand/sit in a huge long line/pile by the gate for about another 2 hours waiting to talk to the 3 agents that were supposed to help us. Some waited even longer... It was kind of fun at fist, texting and calling people, getting encouragement from Mike, looking up scriptures in the Bible and laughing, all to the puzzlement of everyone around me. After two hours though, I gave up on the line and called the ticket agent by phone to re-book my flight. While I was in line I was talking to a girl about my age and who, like me, was keeping a very good attitude about the whole thing. I saw her again on the shuttle ride to the hotel where the airline put us up for the night, along with the quiet man, and we agreed to have dinner together. It was awesome! Turns out she is a Christian who is struggling to find a church in the Seattle area. So we had an amazing conversation and exchanged numbers! I made a new friend! It was definitely a divine appointment! I actually liked the hotel staying thing... I just love hotels! And this was a nice one... so it was very fun actually (no hotel party though). Well the next morning when I got to the airport I was in for another surprise: our 8:30 flight now wasn't leaving until noon and we had to rebook our connections again. People were mad. I felt like the enemy was trying to kick it up a notch, so I just repeated the verse in Proverbs 16 that I (randomly) read that morning: "A man makes his plans, but the Lords directs his steps." I of course knew that God was in control even if nobody else did. Sow while I was standing in yet another line, my mom called me freaking out and I talked to her in Russian. After I hung up a young man behind me asked me if I was Russian. Another divine appointment! Turns out he's a Russian youth pastor from Pennsylvania who was in Seattle for his brother's wedding and preached at 3 different churches last Sunday, one of which was my old Russian church. We talked for a long time about the things of God and I got to share my testimony with him (with everyone around listening in). It was quite awesome, but sad because like many Russian Pentecostal Christians, his beliefs were still centered on the traditions and the law instead of an intimate, loving relationship with God. When I was telling him what God has done in my life and how much I loved Him, he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about, but I know it got to him... so yea... lots of seeds were planted on this flight... on the plane, in the terminal, at the hotel... I'm amazed at what God can plan and do and how He can use people for His purposes... While I think it's unusual how He had me minister to people that were already Christian (but needed encouragement and support), I know that others have benefited from it was well. On the flight to DC our pilot was very funny, slightly unprofessional, but funny. The things that went on this flight were beyond anything I've ever experienced before... The pilot was a week away from retirement and just "didn't care anymore" about United, so he actually drafted up a letter (Christmas card) to the president of United, expressing his and the passengers' disdain about the whole 24 hour delay ordeal, and passed it around the plane so people could leave their own comments. He then took a picture of the passengers in the cabin raising their middle finger (directed at the United's president) so send along with the letter. I'm telling you, this flight was beyond strange. When the letter got to me, I read over it quickly and found it to be less than pleasant... so I did what I could so lessen the damage by adding Romans 8:28 and saying that there were no complaints from me because I actually enjoyed the adventure. Hope it helps... When the plane touched down in DC everyone cheered... I think a lot of good came out of this "nightmare". People got out of their shells, let down their guard, helped each other, talked to each other, made new friends and were forced to slow down and notice others around them... there was a lot of bonding. As I pondered all of this sitting in my first class seat from DC to Providence, I thanked God for always being in control and ordering my steps ...