Schedule Disruptions – God’s Planning

I am on the plane, returning from a packed trip that included a visit with my daughter Rebekah in Scotland, then a field visit to our team in Kazakhstan, where my family had served from 1996-2006. When scheduling this trip, I found the best fare I could get was by buying separate round trip tickets – Atlanta-Istanbul, Istanbul-Astana (Kaz). So to see Rebekah, I delayed the departure to Kazakhstan and bought yet a third round trip fare Istanbul to Edinburgh. I saved money, but my trip to Edinburgh ended up being a 31-hour trip, complete with four plane changes! I don’t recommend you hire me to do your travel planning.

After buying the tickets so they all lined up, Turkish Air changed the schedule which resulted in us having to spend an unplanned full day in Istanbul. I was frustrated as that shortened our trip to Kazakhstan and it meant the expense of an overnight. As I was planning, I remembered that one of the young women from the student ministry in Kazakhstan was now in Istanbul for Hodgkins Lymphoma treatment. Lyuba is a sweet, bubbly young woman who I had gotten to know the 2-3 years prior to our leaving Kazakhstan in 2006. So I wrote her to see if she’d like to get together.

I ended up being able to see her mother in Kazakhstan so she could give me some stuff to bring. She is understandably concerned about her daughter and it was good to be able to console her and to be her courier. It was fun to see what a Russian in Istanbul misses – the care package included pickled fish, a packet of Russian mayonnaise, dark bread, porridge mix, and some of that fake crab meat. Lyuba was very excited to get it!

Yesterday I spent nearly 3 hours with Lyuba. She was glad to have a chance to speak Russian, as she has been living with an American missionary family in Turkey for 5 months. We had a delightful visit which I think was a blessing and encouragement to her. And she was ecstatic about the care package from her mother!

As we went our separate ways, I thought about how if Turkish Air had not changed the schedule, it would not have been possible to have this time together. Did God orchestrate this? I don’t know. But I do know that He wants us keep our eyes open for ministry opportunities, especially in the midst of interruptions, and that He will use us even when things happen that we really had not intended or even wanted.