It's in God's Hands
Our day began early--we arrived three hours before our flight was supposed to board at 8:55 a.m., and thanks to TSA Pre-check, we spent most of that time walking around the Dulles airport after going through security. As boarding time approached, the gate next to ours announced that their flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. I smiled sympathetically at the passengers' groans, thankful that ours seemed to be boarding an hour and a half early...until the announcement at our gate. Yes, we too had mechanical problems and would be delayed. They would give a later announcement about how long the delay was at the same time we were supposed to start boarding. Normally, I'm fine with all that. A pain, but I mean, I'm comfortable and have all my immediate needs met--just need a little extra patience, no worries. But this time...we only have a one hour layover in Honolulu before catching the once-a-day flight to Guam. Then in Guam, we have five hours to catch the twice-a-week flight to Yap. This means that a little hour or two delay could mean we miss graduation. So we started praying and telling all our friends and family to pray. Soon we were told that if we were going to Guam, we should see customer service to be re-booked since the delay would indeed cause us to miss our connecting flight to Guam.
It's funny how I've learned to trust God more easily with some things--life challenges, prayer requests for other people. But somehow trusting God with airline schedules is a whole new realm. I've dreamed, planned, saved for this graduation day in Yap for four years. Every key stroke and phone call and "No, that won't get you to Guam until too late either..." threatened to crush this dream before we could even get airborne.
But knowing that others are praying helps. Hollis, Karen's husband, texted her: "It's in God's hands." And so it is.
We had a choice between flying to Japan and catching a flight to Guam that arrived about two hours after the Yap flight is supposed to leave and pray that the Yap flight is delayed (and hoping our luggage caught up with us soon). Or take this delayed Honolulu flight that arrives about 30 minutes after the Guam flight is scheduled to leave...and pray it's delayed. We chose to stick with the Honolulu flight. We have no idea if we made the right decision yet, but we are flying by faith, trusting that we are in God's hands.
One thing I know for sure: if we make it to graduation, it will be because God wants us there. My dad texted that God controls the winds. Just asking for a little push...
**Ala Moana Hotel, Honolulu, HI**
So we missed our flight by about 20-30 minutes. I was heartbroken for about a minute until I started getting texts from my boss who is meeting us in Yap. He said they were working on rescheduling the graduation for Sunday, after we arrive, so we could still be a part of it! If I hadn't been in the middle of the airport with a nice lady from United trying to give the voucher instructions to us, I might have sat down for a little cry. It just means so much that they would do that for us. Such a relief that we won't miss it!
Another miracle happened after they thought Karen's bag had been accidentally shipped off to Japan and they could only hope they could get it to Guam. Amazingly, the bag turned up literally right before we left HNL airport.
Now we are hanging out in a nice hotel, went down to the beach for sunset, and about to get some much needed sleep. Thanking God for what He has done today, giving us peace and providing a way where there seemed to be no way.
“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19 NLT
Macaroni Grill, mostly on United vouchers
View from our room.
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