This past weekend I spent 14 hours in airports. That’s about 12 more hours than I spent sleeping. Someone cut a couple of fiber-optic cables and the Dallas area airports were without radar and communication signals, for a long period of time. I don’t know what a fiber optic cable would even be, but I know that it was a very sad eventuality for thousands when one was clipped.
Somehow, unbelievably, my little 1/100,000th of the problem scenarios was remedied and I walked in there, at the last minute, and spoke for the sweet ladies of the Howe church in Howe, Texas. I was sleepy, but I was really glad to be with those sisters, after fully believing, at several different points that my presence would not be happening. After all, when, after many hours of hearing delay after delay, and cancellation after cancellation, you finally get almost to your destination and you hear a pilot say, “I have bad news and good news….The good news is, we picked up a lot of fuel in Huntsville…”, you kind of know what the bad news is going to be.
I want to thank the sisters at Howe for being patient and persistent as we tried to figure a way to make the plan work. (I wish I’d taken some pictures of the women of Howe!…This is how you roll when you are this sleepy!) They were a tenacious group of women. I also know that, if I had not been there, one of those ladies would have stepped up there and done a better job than I could even approach. But more thank all this, I see His MORE in all the workings of the weekend. Here are just ten examples.
- The first six-hour delay, that ended up in total cancellation, brought good news to me, as I waited. Someone dear to me responded that she’d been unexpectedly granted, by God, what she’s been praying for, and that she had decided to do our Digging Deep study with us. She needs this. I praise Him!
- Someone sitting beside me on the very last flight put my phone number in her phone for contacting about the church. She has a five-year-old who needs to be in a Bible class, and she said she would definitely be checking out the West Huntsville church. She lives just a few minutes/miles from our building.
- I had to get my daughter to come and get me from the airport on Friday night, so I could try to sleep a couple of hours before getting up again to try for the Saturday red-eye flight. I asked her to let me run in a fast food place on the way home, because I was starving. I was sad that my husband was not available to shuttle me. In a coincidence I could not have dreamed up, a man opened the door for me as I was exiting the McDonald’s. It WAS my husband. He did not know I was there when he stopped. I surely did not expect him to be there. It was a fun moment.
- Just as I was about to abandon all hope, for the third or fourth time, of making it to the ladies day, I was pretty tired, discouraged and grumpy. Then I had a conversation with a lady beside me who was trying to get to her niece’s funeral. Her niece was young; a victim of cancer. Sometimes the attitude adjustment reminders are unavoidable and potent.
- The lady who picked me up at the airport in Dallas was wonderfully encouraging. She had been at the ready to drive from Dallas to Shreveport or Oklahoma City to pick me up—just wherever I could make it. I’m humbled at the tenacity and hospitality of so many on this trip. This particular sister was very good at making me feel like she actually enjoyed traveling a long distance to spend time with me on Dallas freeways.
- A sweet sister took me into a private part of the building when I arrived, where she showed me my personal prayer quarters. I loved having that little space in which to collect my thoughts. After arriving at the building, I had just a short moment before speaking. This sister took my
hands and prayed with me. That was the exact thing I needed in that moment. God is so very good! - While there, I met some people from my past—people I love very much—and I met a new sister, just born-again in baptism a few days ago. She wanted the Digging Deep book and she’s already texted me her address since I have been home. This is the best!
- I also met victims—victims of rape, of adult children who have left their moorings, and of the devil working in their own personal lives. I was reminded, once again, of the power of the devil in our lives and of the Victor over His death and darkness.
- I spoke with a lady who is trying hard to get a congregation back into full hospitality/fellowship mode following the exhausting and divisive national experience of Covid. She’s planning game nights and meals for elderly and outings and devotionals; and she and her husband are doing all of this without much encouragement from the rest of the family there. Those who are still recovering, in spiritual ways, from Covid are one more testimony to the power of darkness. It was a blessing to me to see her perseverance in making this recovery, for this church, her personal goal and business.
- I got up on Sunday morning and sang “No other name but the name of Jesus,” with people who sang it with fervor and who are living their lives to the glory of that holy name.
