What a day! What a gloriously hilarious day....
So I arrived at the Johannesburg airport at 7:45 this morning. My flight set to leave straight for Pemba at 11:10am. I take my time checking in, paying huge sums of excess baggage fees (oye), enjoying a nice breakfast, treating myself since it’s my last decent meal for a while (or so I think). I get to my gate around 9:40 (boarding is listed to begin at 10:25). My new friend Julie, also on staff for HS16, arrives and we sit and chat at our gate. Times goes by and we mention how we should be boarding by now. We look around, no one has moved, no sign has changed. Still at the right gate. No listed delays. Flight not listed as boarding.... More time goes by and I get a big antsy so I walk around trying to find an agent for our airline. There, of course, is no one to be found. So as we begin to walk from gate to gate asking where we can find a representative of our airline (keeping our gate in sight this entire time, still no activity) someone finally approaches us and informs us we have just missed our flight.
Excuse me? We are so confused. Did the gate change? No. Did the flight leave out of this gate right here? Yes. When did it leave? Right on time; We opened the doors at 10:25. No, that is not possible, I looked at my watch at 10:29 and wondered aloud why there was no activity. We go back and forth for a while until she tells us to find someone else to talk to.
We are then sent on a goose chase around the airport to find our airline’s supervisor, who shows us no grace and assumes we are lying about having been at our gate because everyone else somehow made this (very sneaky) flight. (although there was one other man who somehow missed this mystery flight alongside us) This goes on for quite a while as we try to explain that it wasn’t our fault. We were where we were asked to be. We waited. We watched. There is no way this flight left without us knowing. Still no mercy. Our tickets have been forfeited.
At this point I am so sad. I want to be in Pemba. I don’t want to pay another $500 for a 2 1/2 hour flight into Pemba. We are in the Johannesburg airport with no working phone numbers of anyone on this continent. We try emailing our few local contacts to see if there is anything that can be done to help. No response. And then we run out of our 30 minutes of complementary internet.
So I take a minute. Be still. Listen to the Lord. (Yes it took me this long to get to this point...) But as I am still I am made aware that the last couple hours have consisted of me fighting to get my way to Pemba. I was frustrated. Disappointed. Confused. Sad. Anxious. So I laid all that at His feet and I apologized. I’m sorry for trying to take matters into my own hands. I’m sorry for wanting to be in Pemba more than I wanted to hear what You had to say about the situation. And I was still. And there was peace. And then things (slowly) began coming together. I got in touch with our one South African contact. He advised us to go to another airline and try for tickets later this week. After some hilarious moments back and forth at the ticket counter we were finally able to purchase the tickets. I was reminded that no money is ever my own, it is all a gift from heaven, for His glory. I have no right to lay claim on any of it.
So then at this point everything is funny to me. Like how we had to go back and forth to the ticket counter because our tickets had to be paid in cash, not American dollars but Rand... So we had to go to the ATM. Which was hesitant to give us money. But then they didn’t have change at the ticket counter. So we had to wander around asking for someone for change for a 50 because we owed them 38R and only had 28R (meaning, we were short less than 2 dollars and no one would help us out!) I spent so much of the afternoon just laughing at our unreal circumstances. I have been in the airport for 9 hours. I have seen every inch of the airport. I have pushed around my tremendously heavy (by my own doing) bags. (Which, by the way, the original airlines had time to find and offload our bags from our flight before letting us know we had missed the plane... so bizarre).
So, all that to say, by the grace of God I am now heading to Pemba Friday morning :) I am going to enjoy a day’s rest in South Africa with Julie. I am going to continue laughing at what happened. And I am going to continue looking expectantly for what He has in store next.
I am thankful that in all time, places, and circumstances He is sovereign and He is good. I am thankful for His hand of protection and provision. I am thankful for his joy and laughter. I am thankful for the reminder to be still and Listen. I am thankful that even if the plane heads on to Pemba, His presence stays with me.
Hallelujah. What a day.
Thanks for the prayers and the love.
May you be continually blessed by revelations of His goodness towards you in ALL things.
Kelly
