a seemingly major inconvenience = dream come true!
During one of our weeks of lecture in this Discipleship Training School we had a speaker come and share how often times when we are inconvenienced the Lord will use that for an opportunity. Since hearing this my prayer has been that God would inconvenience me daily. This is my desire for each day I am in Togo and for the rest of my life...little did I know that God would actually hear and answer my prayer :)
For the past 4 or so months my co-leader, Lindsay and I have had a dream to take our team to Paris. We wanted to surprise them and debrief there on our return home from Togo. When we discovered that our flight did not fly through there we were slightly saddened but knew that the Lord had something better for us, and He does! We now get to spend 3 wonderful days with friends of mine in the Netherlands!!
This story begins a week ago when my team was boarding a plane to LAX. We had some teary goodbyes, were excited yet heavy hearted to leave our friends and fellow member of our team in Kona, he is on his way to meet us soon. From the moment we arrived at the airport we sensed the favour of the Lord with 5 of the 8 of us getting upgraded to economy comfort. This was great b/c had an overnight flight. We board the plane and after waiting an hour we come to find out that there was a slight electrical problem and they were awaiting a part from Honolulu. So off we the plane we went. After waiting another hour we discover our flight is completely cancelled!! Little did we know that this was the first of many delays that we would have!! Lindsay and I were quite fortunate b/c we were already waiting in line for assistance when the mob closed in around us upon hearing of the cancelled flight. Again we felt the favour of the Lord as the Customer Service Agent went above and beyond to help us reschedule our flight the next day, knowing we were with the University of the Nations, and rerouted us through PARIS!! God answered our prayers, it was only a few hours but still we were thankful!
Even though this was an inconvenience to our plans we saw it as an opportunity to see our friends in Kona for another day. We were put up in a hotel, which was exciting for us but I am confident to say that the hotel was not nearly as happy as we were when the remaining 4 outreach teams came to join us there :) The next day we were off for round two with two other teams. This time it was a much more joyous parting as we all flew to San Francisco together. We arrive only to discover that our flight was delayed! This was a re-occuring theme for our travel. In the midst of delays, cancellations and re-bookings our team stayed in the highest of spirits, joyful and praising Jesus! Breaking out in spontaneous PRAISE BREAKS in random airports across the globe. (if you don't know what a Praise Break is, it is when you do something wild with your body that you have never done before to give thanksgiving to the Lord for all He has done :D it is quite a hilarious sight)
Finally we arrived in Paris. I was so happy to be there. I knew it was a gift from the Lord but felt that there was something more b/c I knew that the Father would not bring us all this way to just have us leave so quickly. But alas my ticket said we only had 3 short hours, which were cut even shorter b/c of another delay :)) so we would make the most of it as we passed through windows gazing out...
Our team went to check in only to discover that my reservation along with another gal's were both cancelled. I was elated! I would get to see Paris after all...and for FREE!! The rest of our team took off running to catch their flight. About 30 minutes later after working through rebooking our flight, Lindsay's bright and smiling face comes bursting down the hallway! Our entire team had missed their flight due to Air France and were not allowed to board...resulting in us ALL staying the night in Paris!! What a great inconvenience that turned in to an opportunity for us to see Paris!! What a GREAT Father we have. God is so faithful to give us the desires of our hearts just because He loves us and for no other reason.
And see Paris we did! We were able to go out and explore the city that afternoon and again the next morning taking in many sights, culture and delicious food at a very minimum cost to us. It was better than we could have ever hoped for!!
We arrived in Togo 5 days later than anticipated with 3 cancelled reservations, with each flight we took be delayed and arriving with no luggage. BUT that paled in comparison to the great spirits and joy we had with the memory of the extra night with our friends in Kona and adventure in Paris. What an extraordinary generous God we serve. I am still extremely humbled by how much better God's plan is than mine and how when we allow ourselves to be inconvenienced the adventures never cease!!
My hope is that for us all to reevaluate how we look at inconveniences in our lives, not as things that mess up our day/week/month and bring in a bad attitude BUT an an opportunity for the Lord to move in our lives and to bring blessing to us and others along the way!!
Stay tuned for more to come from our time in Togo!!
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Wahoo! What a wonderful report Lori :) Reminds me of our "inconvenient breakdown" in Glendive, MT. We ended up going to the largest Creation based Dinosaur and Fossil Museumin the US which was across the street from the hotel we had to stay in while we waited for the car to be fixed. That little delay had God all over it too :) Enjoy your adventure as it unfolds! We look forward to hearing all about it :)
ReplyDeleteBTW, what are the names of your team members? The better to pray for you :)
Peace & Love,
Mo <><