We enjoyed smooth travels from Dulles to Miami and had plenty of time to make our connection to Lima. I was thankful we didn’t have to retrieve our luggage in Miami since it went on through automatically.
I had asked God to give me an opportunity to speak for Him on the plane though I really didn’t want to. I have a pretty strong aversion to talking to strangers on planes for some reason, but I knew I ought to at least offer to be willing.
I then stuck in noise-canceling ear buds and listened to a podcast. Was I being willing, really? Well, I was sitting there with my eyes shut, taking in thoughts while dozing a bit when the lady beside me grabbed my arm. I jumped six and nine-tenths inches, which she apologized for.
She wanted to know if I could tell her about my religion. Okay, Lord, I thought. This must be the opportunity. And I kept thinking that for the next two hours as she talked about her journey from a Jehovah’s Witness background to Islam and Scientology.
She asked, “Are you happy with your religion?” That gave me a chance to tell her about how being God’s child is so very different from following a religion. My relationship with God is real and sweet, something very precious to me. “I want to have that,” she said. “How do I find God?”
She was a Mexican-American from Texas and was really glad we could talk Spanish. I got out my Bible and showed her a few passages of Jesus speaking. When we ready to land, she said, “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’m going to go get a Bible and read it for myself.”
Pray for Miss RamÃrez.
As I said, the flight to Lima went well. In fact, we arrived half an hour early. But we used up all of our two hours and more of layover just standing in line, waiting to go through Immigration.
At one point, they shut down all the computers and did an update that seemed to take a very long time. Then the guy in charge of our line couldn’t remember his password. After multiple tries, he was locked out of the system, so they closed our line and diverted us bit by bit to another line.
Our flight was long gone by then. Caleb and I worked on getting new tickets, which was simple, but took time. We fly tonight at 7:30 instead of this morning at 7:45.
Steph then realized we were missing a carry-on case that happened to be filled with books. I spent hours of this morning and a bit into the afternoon to get that case found and back in our hands. The delay was a blessing in that way!
We also met a group of Kleine Gemeinde-type Mennonites from Belize–Schmidts and Friesens. They could speak only German and Spanish, so we enjoyed getting to know one another in a language foreign to both sides. Fascinating.
We’re all pretty tired, crashing wherever we can. We’ll be glad to be home. I expect we’ll arrive in Cusco around 8:30, getting us home around 10:00.
When Our Friends Who Happen to Live Close to Lima heard that we were once again stranded, they said they ought to learn to simply keep a room at the ready when we happen to be traveling through. [chuckle]
Juan David 