“For all things are your servants.” Psalm 119, v. 91

In all things, in all circumstances, in all sufferings, in all joys, even in evil times, God is in control. Is this a leap of faith or is it true in our daily life? I have not lived through truly evil times but I have known some nice challenges. These challenges have helped me to grow. , I believe God is in those challenges.

It didn’t take Hilda and I long to encounter one of those challenges. November 9^th, the first day of our journey to Ghana and the mission to help set up six new libraries. It started in Cleveland Airport. Our flight to Chicago was supposed to leave at 6:45 pm in order to make a connection with British Airways which would fly us to Ghana via London. The plane was late; there were high winds apparently in Chicago. We prayed. When the plane did arrive we boarded and sat on the runway. We prayed again, “Take care of us LORD. Help us make the connection.” The British Airways plane was due to take off at 9:25pm Chicago time. We took off from Cleveland at 7:25 Chicago time and finally landed at 8:50pm. It was going to be close to make the 9:25pm take off. We were told we had to exit the terminal we were in, take a tram to the International, go through custos again and get a boarding pass at the ticket counter. It did not look good; we had 35 minutes to do all this and reason would tell you that it wasn’t possible. It would take a miracle to get us there on time. We prayed, “Help us LORD but may Your will be done.” I thought to myself that perhaps we were meant to miss the flight to avoid some disaster or another. We prayed and we hustled.

We left the terminal and rushed for the tram. Taking the escalator down a level to catch the tram to the International Terminal we were at the bottom when the tram which had been in the station left. We had just missed it. “Trams will be arriving every four minutes.” a voice over the loud speaker said. It was 9:05.

De-boarding the tram we rushed to the British Airways ticket booth. For some reason they had not allowed us to get a Boarding Pass when we checked in at the first leg of the journey. “You’ll have to get your seats in Chicago.” they said. Show your passport, answer questions, print out the pass. It was 9:15 and we had to go through the security checkpoint again. Fortunately, there was not a long line. I emptied my pockets, took off my shoes, took my laptop out of my briefcase and took off my belt which had my money pouch on it. As I stepped up to the X-Ray machine the gentleman told me that I was the last one in that lane, Hilda who was standing behind me was asked to go to the next machine. I looked over my shoulder and saw a line of 10 people waiting to go through that machine. “Please sir,” I asked, “she is my wife…” They let her through with me. No buzzers, we were off.

The gate was just beyond the security check point. I hadn’t bothered to tie my shoes, and I had held my belt and my money pouch in my hand. It was 9:20. Breathless we handed our Boarding Passes to the stewardesses at the gate. We were in. I stopped, tied my shoes, tucked my shirt in, looped my belt through and attached my money pouch. Hilda stared at me. I knew we had made it. We were the last ones through.

Can God do the impossible? Yes. Are there miracles every day? Yes. Do these challenges build our faith? Does God take care of us? Yes.