Message from Mike

Mike #1

Amazing Grace; Lost and Found!

What an amazing God we serve!  God has already begun to weave His amazing story in this trip.  We were originally scheduled to fly from San Francisco to New York, to Panama City.  We were supposed to leave at 10pm last Friday night and arrive Saturday afternoon.  We purchased these tickets because this was such a great schedule!  But God…  We got to the airport to find a 3 plus hour delay, our connecting flight was impossible, so we got rescheduled to leave San Francisco at midnight, fly to Houston, Texas lounge around the airport for 9 hours, then arrive in Panama late Saturday night.  We were excited for all five of us to make it out of Houston on a standby flight arriving in Panama at our original time!

We were rejoicing in our good fortune until we discovered upon reaching Panama that none of our bags made the flight with us!  I was struggling to remember that Paul and Silas were praising God from a prison cell after an unjust beating… after all, it’s just delayed baggage, right?  The airline told us there would be no problem, our luggage would simply be delayed, it would arrive on the evening flight.  We got our rental vehicle and headed for our sister Delores Leonard’s home in Brisas de Golf.  After a warm greeting with Delores, Veronica realized that she couldn’t find her carry-on bag!  We searched the car, Delores’ house, nothing!  We bravely launched back into the incredible Panamanian traffic, rushed back to the airport to meet the evening flight and try to recover our baggage.  We hurried to the car rental counter and told them of Veronica’s carry-on bag.  What a blessing to be told that security had her bag safe and sound!  Our spirits were high as we found the security office, and there was Veronica’s bag with everything still in it!  In fact, the head of airport security asked Veronica if she was a Christian.  Veronica said that she was and why are you asking, the manager, Zoriada, said, “I looked in your bag and saw your Bible and study materials.”  Veronica and Zoriada hugged, we thanked her for keeping Veronica’s bag and we set off to retrieve our poor delayed baggage.

We were stunned to discover that our bags had not arrived!  After several frustrating moments talking broken Spanish/English through an intercom, we were told that our bags were missing, that they could not be found in their system, that we could come back tomorrow and try again!  Now I’m trying to whistle a strained praise hymn through clenched teeth.  So… we went to the store, bought toothbrushes and toothpaste and extra extra strong deodorant.  Sunday we all got up, Jack and I showered and then put our clothes back on that we had been wearing since the previous Friday morning!  I’ve got to tell you, you could tell that we had been in the tropics for a while.  We discovered a whole new “layer” to the whole fellowship thing.  We meet the Richardson’s in worship and upon hearing about our predicament, Jim literally offered the shirt off of his back, or at least those in his closet!  I could’ve had a whole new style…   After lunch we got into our car only to find out that our rental car had a dead battery.  It’s a Toyota… what can I say! 

What was that praise song??  Actually, everything turned out fine.  After Delores’ neighbor gave us a jump start, we returned to the airport Sunday afternoon to find all of our baggage safe and sound, it had simply traveled to Panama via New York without us!  We exchanged our rental car for another Toyota and headed straight to our homes for another shower ;-)

Did I tell you the best part?  What a frustrating, disastrous trip right?  Wrong!  God is doing what He does best, He is weaving our lives together to create the greatest story of all time.  While we were trying to find our luggage at the airport Saturday night, we decided to ask Veronica’s new friend for help, Zoriada the security manager.  We were able to explain our problems as her English skills were very fluent.  As she was taking us to various places in the airport to check on our baggage, we were explaining to her why we were in Panama, that we were helping people practice their English using the Bible.  We invited her to join our classes and she signed up!  As I write this update, Veronica is reading the Bible and talking about spiritual truths with Zoriada right now!  What if God delayed our baggage just so we could meet Zoriada so Veronica could share the Bible with her?  Zoriada is the first female to be the head of airport security in Panama.  We are learning why it is important to relax and trust in God while unforeseen circumstances are swirling around us.  Would we have missed a divine appointment if we had been negative, harsh, and griping with anyone who would listen?  Please Lord, help us to be more humble that You may be glorified in us…