THE TRIALS OF DELAY

THE TRIALS OF DELAY
“You cannot get on this flight.”
“What?” I asked, consternation all over my face. This can’t be happening, I thought. Surely if I talked with this agent this could all be resolved. She just doesn’t understand the situation here. Lois already had the seat assignments in her hand.
“You do not have enough pages in your passport. You need two full visa pages or you cannot go.” There were more pages in the book, but they were not “visa” pages. So, to emphasize the finality of the situation the agent took the seat assignment cards back from Lois and tore them in two right in front of us.
Wow! What do we do now? There was nothing left to do, but schedule an appointment with the US consulate back in Seattle, and then fly back to Washington State. We did so, wondering what it all meant. It took another four days until we were heading back to Atlanta for the second attempt to leave the country for Tanzania. This time we were not turned away, but continued on our journey without any unnecessary delays.
After the conference we left Dar Es Salaam on the 12th of August, arriving in Johannesburg with just enough time to catch the flight to Atlanta, except we were not on the list. The harried agent behind the desk was having problems. He would not talk to us and declared the flight was already closed. We would have to go to the airline desk and list for the next day. We have friends in Johannesburg; it was not a big problem, only a one day delay. Okay.
Next day, we were on the list, but were told we would probably be bumped off in Dakar, Senegal. I had anticipated that, so I had gotten the telephone number of a missionary in Dakar. I was not too worried at this juncture. It may be interesting to spend a night in Dakar and see another country first hand. Perhaps I would be able to speak at the Bible College (It never happened. I don’t think the school term was even in session).
Sure enough, though we did get on the airplane, when we arrived at Dakar they took us off again. So began the saga of trying to get back on the airplane every night for one whole week. It was always too full, except for one night (the 3rd night). That night the baggage handlers decided to have a strike. There was some loud shouting, a lot of standing around, baggage was piling up around the check-in place. Finally, the baggage handlers walked out of the building. A few airline employees were left holding the bags. One of them came to us and said, “We are not taking on any extra passengers tonight. Just go home.” We left.
Now, there was hesitancy inside me. (I think, the Holy Spirit). But I had already called the missionary and asked him to come back and pick us up. The battle took place in my mind. We reluctantly took our bags outside and waited for the ride back to the mission station. It was 2:00 AM. My spirit remained grieved through the night. I listened to my mind and to others, but missed the message of the Holy Spirit. After we left the airport our names were called to get on the flight, but we could not hear for we had already left the area. God did not give us another chance for several days. How important it is to recognize the voice of the Spirit and simply obey. I believe that is why the Bible tells us to sanctify our mind, so that it cooperates with the Spirit, rather than reasons against Him.
There is a lot more to the story. The short of it is we flew all the way back to Johannesburg, thinking we would have a better chance of getting to the states by taking a different airline through Paris. That did not happen either. There were other delays. Finally we boarded on Monday, Aug. 25th, a flight that took us all the way back to Atlanta. There was an hour and a half stop in Dakar. I was stressed, waiting for the door to shut, which would indicate that no one would be taken off the flight. I was reminded that, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and felt like I was just sinning all over the place with my lack of faith. But God showed us mercy in our weakness and we arrived back at our home the evening of Aug 26, exactly one month from the start of the most eventful mission trip I have had so far. And Lois was a part of it all.