My team was thrilled that we were able to fit in a little adventure weekend at the end of our ministry in Thailand. Our hosts took us and our 435 lbs of backpacks to the airport for another hard goodbye before boarding a 2 hour plane to Phuket.
Ive shared a habit with my mom for years of double tapping the outside of the plane before boarding, you know, for good luck or something. Like an audible, albeit nonverbal, plea for the Lord to keep us and everyone on the plane safe. A little knock on His door. This time, I relied solely on faith, skipped my OCD double tap, and prayed hard as I walked on board and looked for 19F. One thing I prayed for was an opportunity to meet a stranger; I wanted to step out in boldness and speak to someone about Jesus outside the confines of our assigned ministry.
I sat next to the window, my favorite, and thanked Jesus for the little gift. On the other side of me were two friends; one with a book and one with headphones watching a movie. Great. Nothing worse for a chatterbox than a neighbor with a book.
Ok, Jesus, not really the explicit evangelizing-friendship op I had in mind. If you realllyyy want me to talk to him about you, have him put his book down. Was that a dumb prayer, a test of obedience, or Jesus getting a kick out of the request. Everyone has to put the book down at some point.
Somewhere among my conversation with Jesus and my conscious effort to find “the right moment” to break the silence with neighbs, I fell asleep. Typical. When I woke up, the lights were off and my face was flat against the window and I was a little delirious. Delirious enough to think I was looking at the sunset. At 11:30PM. BUT then I realized it was the moonlight radiating from behind a cloud and the moon had this vibrant orange hue. I tried to capture it, but this photo does it 0% justice. Maybe 6%.
Just trust me, it was breathtaking even when the delirium wore off. I looked around the plane hoping one of my teammates was awake to revel in this beauty with me but I couldn’t whisper loudly enough to both not be obnoxious and get their attention. I checked on book boy next to me and he was dozing (book still open), so I just sat there and watched it by myself. I looked as high upwards as my neck could muster up against that window and saw a million and a half of the brightest stars ever, like Christmas twinkle lights strung up above the clouds. AND THENNN, descending over southern Thailand, I saw a shooting star! Other than being convinced that I’m never sleeping through a flight again, I was totally amped to notice neighbor finally putting the book down. Think I can’t make a friend in the ten minutes it takes to deboard a plane? Challenge accepted. My two neighbors turned out to be super friendly. They are Barack and Benzi, from Israel of all places!
As we got to know each other, we talked about their travels to Amsterdam and Thailand and my mission trip with my team. Barack asked if “missionary” was the same as “mercenaries,” and I was able to tell them about Jesus and the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20)! I looked around and was reminded to trust in God’s timing. So many passengers were observing our conversation! How great of God. If I would have sat down and nudged the book out of Barack’s hand and talked to him when I initially wanted to, him and Benzi would have gotten to hear about the good things Jesus has been doing in Asia, but the way He had set it all up, plenty of ears (and hopefully hearts and minds) were open and present for the good news. Obedience baby!
