We Simply Had No Clue

     The flight we were taking from Atlanta to Managua, Nicaragua was beyond exciting to say the least.  However, none of the passengers had a clue how exciting it really was. That is until after we landed.

     Our flight left from Atlanta a day late in the evening.   On the flight, I sat next to a lady who was on her way to a mission trip as well.  We were sharing stories about our faith.  During the flight, she was making bracelets.  Each bracelet had three beads on it, a black bead, a red bead, and a white bead.  It was cool because I had a few hundred necklaces with the same colored beads plus I a green bead.  I was telling her how I planned to share the gospel using these necklaces.  Every necklace we had was made by a child in our church in the AWANA program.  Not only was this a gospel tool, it was a gift from an American child.

     The black bead represented sin, the red bead represent the blood Jesus shed on the cross for our sins, the white bead represented the forgiveness of our sins, the green bead represented the new life we are given in Christ, and the knot in the necklace represented that fact the Jesus will never let us go once we are His.  The fact that these necklaces were gifts meant that they had to be received, just as we must receive Christ into our hearts in order to have His gift of life.  The necklace could be received by ones hand.  Christ must be received with ones heart. 

     I began to notice that our flight was taking longer than what it should have.  There was also some bad weather, but that did not seem unusual to me.  I had flown numerous times before in storms.  As usual, we were told to stay in our seat due to turbulence, which was normal.

     Finally, we were descending for the landing.  That seemed to take forever.  When we did finally land.  Iit was the hardest, bumpiest, and rockiest landing I had ever felt before.  Falling from the sky may have been a little easier.  Once the plane came to a stop, the pilot came on the intercom and said in a very shaky voice,  "Welcome to Honduras……I mean Nicaragua." 

     We had no clue, but when we got off the plane we quickly discovered that the airport had been struck by lighting and had no power on the runway.  No lights what so ever.   It was nearly 11:00 pm, pitch black outside.  Our flight had been redirected to Honduras, but since we did not have enough fuel to make it that far our pilot was forced to make a crash landing in the dark by instruments only.  I am sure half of Nicaragua's people were outside the airport watching.  I had never seen so many people standing outside an airport ever.

Small group of children in Nicaragua who
not only recieved a necklace, but Christ as well

Psalms 91:1-2

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." 

May my life be the proof and evidence of His Love!