When flying to Malawi from Romania, we had a 12-hour layover in Stockholm, Sweden.
We waited outside of security for hours before we were even able to go through and get checked in.
Once we were through, our squad of 19 made ourselves comfortable at the tables by our gate that offered electronic outlets.
Some of us walked around, found something to eat before our long flight, others just sat and waited or watched each other’s belongings.
I was among the few who went to get some food, leaving my belongings at a table with 3 of my squad mates.
When I returned, I noticed a man sitting in the chair that I had been in before I went off.
I could tell there had been a little bit of chat between him and my squad mates that were still sitting there, so shortly after walking up, I chimed in. Upon finding out that Simon was from Uganda, my heart was overjoyed.
I told him about the Christian ministry I had previously worked with in Kampala, Uganda called Watoto, and asked him if he had ever heard of it. This question opened up the conversation for something beautiful.
As we were in conversation, asking him questions and him returning questions to us, we were supposed to be boarding the plane, but with short notice, our flight was delayed and actually moved to a whole new gate.
This delay and gate change was actually a part of the Lord’s plan that left us plenty of time to talk with Simon and genuinely share with each other what we know about the Lord.
Simon knew about the Bible, and even Jesus.
He knew many scriptures and challenged our beliefs with questions that were honestly hard to answer..
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“If God said He has already won the war against satan, then why did we still have to fight the battles against sin?”
He believed it was necessary to do well and believe in God. He believed that if you are good and you don’t sin, no matter whom you worship, if you simply believe that God is real, you go to heaven.
Simon had the understanding that we are all children of God, but that if Jesus is also a child of God, then he must just be a messenger kind of like us.
What he didn’t believe was that the only way you get to Heaven is through Jesus Christ, or that Jesus was the true Son of God.
Standing in line to check our tickets, we continued to try to understand each of our beliefs.
We entered the gate before Simon, and one by one, Chelsea, Nettie, Jonathan and I eagerly waited around the corner for Simon to walk over to us and continue the conversation, but he didn’t.
Nettie couldn’t contain herself, she walked over to Simon just to thank him for talking to us and these were the words he spoke:
“ There’s something different about all of you, it’s like you’re a light. There’s a joy that comes from something greater, and I don’t know what it is.”
Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, he had told us that he had been in 3 near death experiences, 2 of which were out of body and the last where he saw all the bad things he had done one way and a bright light the opposite way.
Each of us were praying to ourselves the whole time that God would reveal Himself to him in a vision, and change his heart.
As we stood there in a circle, we could sense the Lord was in the midst of all of it, and we decided to pray fervently for our new friend.
Sitting on the plane, waiting for everyone to get situated and bags put away, we noticed Simon was two rows behind.
There was another missionary that was sitting beside him, one of the only other Americans on the plane, so Nettie introduced herself.
Shortly after take off, once the seatbelt signs went off and you could move around, people started getting up.
Simon got up, walked toward the front and stopped and asked Nettie to come sit by him.
As they sat together, she shared everything she knew about the Bible and who God is.
She shared that he could have a relationship with Jesus just like we do.
He wanted to know more about this Jesus.
He wanted to know why we were doing what we were doing.
He wanted the joy that we had.
He wanted a savior.
Right there, thousands of feet up in the sky, Simon gave his life to the Lord.
He found Jesus on a plane and his life is now changed forever.
Divine appointments.
Have you ever wondered why you meet the people you meet?
Maybe, just maybe, the Lord is setting you up for a divine appointment.
Will you take the opportunity to share about the man who saved you?
Or will you dismiss it?
