In 1972 I was part of a large Christian team in Ohio that focused on helping young drug addicts. One afternoon a meeting was held and we were all informed that a missionary team in Puerto Rico needed help.
The urgent almost frantic tone in the letter compelled me and a friend to take up the challenge.
We immediately began working on raising our fare cleaning houses, washing windows anything we could, but after weeks of exhausting effort, we had only raised enough to buy tickets from New York to Puerto Rico. The problem was that we were in Cincinatti hundreds of miles from New York. Nevertheless, we were determined and set a departure date booking non-refundable tickets (to hinder procrastination) from New York. But, as each week passed, that date looked more like a Damocles Sword.
We started to panic and went into high gear calling every trucking company in town trying to hitch a ride. We tried all the crazy ideas we could come up with including asking limousine service to drive us there for free, but they thought we were out of our minds and let us know. Nothing was working.
Finally, D-day came. Our tickets would be void within 24 hours. My panic changed to misery. Then one of our co-workers threw out the idea that a small airport he knew of sometimes let people hitch a ride. We had nothing to lose so we packed everything into our friends car and headed for the airport.
When we arrived, we were shocked at how small it was. With misgivings we opened the wooden gate and bounced up the dirt road to the office. The outside gloom of dusk matched the way I felt. It only lacked the depressing fog horn sounding in the distance, but the receptionist made up for that by telling us, "It's impossible". I dragged myself back to the car and plonked down onto the seat. After weeks of struggling, this looked like the end.
As I wallowed in self-pity in the back-seat, one of our friends said, "Hey! Let's ask God for a sign!" So, we prayed. My friend then thought he had a vision of an angel opening the wooden gate and flying away.
The meaning was clear. We had nothing more we could do, so as crazy as this seemed, my friend and I looked at each other and said, "Well, we haven't sawed the limb off completely...after all, we were still sitting in the car." We knew that for God to do the miracle, we had to at least do our part and act like we were leaving. We returned to the private airport, piled our luggage in a corner of the lobby and said good-bye to our friends.
It was 6 p.m. My partner walked around reading the posters on the wall while I sat by the suitcases and somehow felt calm.
After about 30 minutes a man who looked like a pilot walked in. My friend, Nat, walked over to him and presented our situation. The man, who turned out to be a Christian also, apologized saying he was only a student.
He and my friend talked for about half an hour then Nat came over and said to me, "He's going to drive me to the main airport to check ticket prices." And off they went.
I felt a little silly because we hadn't even done that. We didn't have enough money anyway, but I figured that it would give Nat something to do.
After about twenty minutes, he returned alone with this silly smile on his face. I shot a questioning look and he reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out two first class tickets to New York! The seemingly closed door suddenly flew open. We virtually danced through the airport barely noticing the ton of luggage we were dragging. It didn't matter, we were going to New York!
But the story doesn't end there. After arriving in New York, we got one more confirmation that we were on the right track. There was this huge, "3-abreast" check-in line that we had to get into & it was barely moving.
A chubby little Latino man with an Xavier Cougat moustache was directing things and as Nat and I passed, the man gave a cute bow and said smiling, "I hope that you and your friend have a nice trip."
New York can be an unfriendly place and this touched me. I said, "God bless you."
The line lurched forward and the little man said in a pleading tone, "I really need a blessing." The line move quickly so I shouted back, "I'll pray for you!
A few minutes later we were seated in the cramped 2nd class, but joyful to be there. As we tried to position our knees to keep from bumping the seat in front, here came the same man waddling down the isle. He leaned towards us and whispered, "Let me invite you and your friend to come up to First Class" I gave my stunned partner a nudge and off we went overwhelmed, yet again, at how God conducts His business.
Here is one of God's most enduring lessons with me: that "With God all things are possible." and that fact should never surprise me, as it has never failed. And second, never forget to show love to those you come in contact with, they just may be an angel in disguise.
Copyright 2000, Jan Turner
