Suddenly, Joelle was waking me up. The bright lights above me quickly reminded and reoriented me to the airport we’d been sleeping at. After a nine hour layover, our midnight flight from Porto, Portugal to Athens, Greece had been delayed 24hrs as we waited to board. In order to travel from North Africa to Cyprus, our squad planned to take a sequence of three flights—stopping at Porto and Athens. But, suddenly our plans changed. And at 1 am we collected our checked bags, found a quiet corner, neatly set up our sleeping bags, stacked our backpacks behind us and tried to get some rest. We took turns until the morning, keeping watch over the squad and our bags. At, 0330 when my watch shift began, we were nearly forty hours into travel.
At first, I was just trying to wake up. The night before we left North Africa and traveled by bus overnight to the airport to arrive in Porto. And after a very precious hour and half travel nap, I began pacing back and forth to wake-up; I grabbed my headphones and turned some worship music as loud as I could. After about a half a song, God quickly woke me up and met me. I felt my attitude and heart lift as His presence overwhelmed me in these early morning hours in the airport. The next hour flew by as a time of unexpected singing and worship.
Over the last weeks and months, God continues teaching me a lot about letting go of agendas and control. In the middle of the night in a quiet airport in Porto, Portugal, God continued teaching me so much about the gift of the unexpected. During that hour I was keeping watch during the night, he was nudging and prompting my heart about how to use the following twenty hours we had been given in the Porto airport. He was reminding what a gift the unexpected is. He was stirring and planting ideas in my heart for this open space. While I was wondering the practical … what will we eat? how long will they let us sleep here? when will I sleep? when in the world will we get to Cyprus?… God was inviting us to something so much bigger than our basic needs or the end point of our travel days. The invitation to the supernatural, abundant gifts and life is ministry mindset is always before us, and was evidently presented to me during these morning hours.
I woke up the next morning and found out the Spirit had also been speaking to some of my teammates in the same way. There was a fire in our hearts to see Porto, Portugal and the airport a changed place. Quickly, God opened our eyes to see that an extra 24hr delays, turning our 9 hour layover into a 33 hour layover was not a dissapointment, but indeed a gift when we saw it with His eyes.
The things we initially worried about had been taken care of with abundance. Over the next hours, we would receive three separate meal vouchers a person, totally 68 euros in value. (wow!!!) We had more to eat than we knew what do to with. We were able to make our sleeping spot homebase and never had any trouble with security. God is an abundant provider and protector.
The following morning, our team came together and met, discussing and praying into what the day could look like. We threw out the ideas that God was laying on our heart: prayer walking around the airport, praying for people in the airport, sharing the gospel in the airport, taking our nail polish and tweezers and opening an airport spa for squadmates and strangers alike, having a worship night in the airport, and the list goes on. We split into teams, and with ten hours before we could recheck our bags, a new excitement fused into this extended travel day.
Emily and I had the opprotunity to spend the morning walking around the airport praying for people. We got to meet, talk and pray with six different people. They were all in need of some kind of physical healing, and we had the opportunity to pray for them.
The highlight of Porto airport for me was meeting Jose and Miguel. These two brothers were originally from Venezuela, and they were at the airport awaiting the arrival of their cousin, Ana. She was permanently moving to Portugal that very day, leaving her life in Venezuela behind in hopes of finding peace and prosperity. We sat down at the airport coffee shop with them and quickly jumped into an incredible conversation. They shared their life story with us and Emily and I both got to share parts of our testimony with them. Ana arrived from Venezuela about thirty minutes after we met. When she arrived, Miguel bought everyone coffee and for another hour and half we continued to exchange stories and friendship. This opportunity to share the name of Jesus Christ, his redemption and our new life in him could have missed all of this!
This 65 hour travel day was unexpected. It was a tiring, beautiful reminder of the gift of living presently and unrestrained by expectation or agenda. The Spirit is always inviting us to more. He is always meeting us with His provision, even when it doesn’t look like our expectation. During this 65 hours of travel, God consistently showed himself to be abundant, protector and actively inviting us to use everything for His kingdom.
The rest of our flights went smoothly (YAY!) and we have arrived in North Cyprus! This month, Daughters of the Light is pursuing new ministry connection in this region. We are only the second team to ever venture into this area. Please pray for opportunities and connections with local Christians involved in ministering to the people of North Cyprus.
