Journey Beyond Expected.

(written on 12th of August 2011, 2:00 P.M., Gatwick airport)

Today is supposed to be the day we are flying from Luton airport to Geneva for a 3-day conference for Couples for Christ 16th Euro-Conference.  We are supposed to be abour to lay down on our cosy bed in the Hotel we booked as our dwelling place for the next three nights.  I am supposed to be watching some French news on the television or something.  But this has dramatically changed. 

I am now sat in a bench in the middle of nowhere in the heart of Gatwick airport.  Yeah.  I said it right.  Gatwick Airport.  Now you might be wondering how on earth I/we ended up in Gatwick airport?  Here is the real very interesting story.  We set off from Hartlepool yesterday to Luton.  We booked a night stay in one of the Hotel nearby this is to make sure that we won’t be late for our flight the next morning.  We arrived in the Hotel at approximately 9:00 pm.  A bit late but just in time to finally head ourselves to rest (ofcourse we had something to eat before going to bed in case you were wondering.).  For some reason I can’t find my head round my pillow.  So I was much awake most of the night.  Though tired of driving and no sleep, I got myself up exactly 4:00 a.m.. My alarm clock dictated me to get up.   At around 4:30 a.m.,  we are all finally ready to set off to the Park and Ride we booked for our cars.  Satnav were all set, off I went.  I was confidently cruising when suddenly my satnav didn’t manage to pick up road changes so I was lost.  I can’t find a way to get round to where we were going to.  It was a panic, a pressure was building up.  I was starting to worry.  Anyway, in God’s grace I manage to full back and head to where I wanted to be.  I was once on track.  At around 5:30 a.m. I arrived at the place.  I breathed the sigh of relief.  But when you think everything is going to be fine when another problem strikes.  The drivers of the bus who supposed to be taking us to the airport were in their hand over.  And the driver dropped a bomb shell.  He can’t take us to the airport till 6:20 a.m.  I said he must be kidding me.  Our flight is due to close in 6:30 a.m.  Taking into account the journey from the park n ride, it is going to be 15-20 minutes.  Clearly, there will be no chance I will be getting there on time to check myself in.  So the expected thing happened, we were there about 20 minutes late to the chick-in closing time.  As expected, Easyjet won’t let us check-in (kesyo late na kami, close na ang checking-in, blah blah blah).  They turned deaf to our plea to atleast hear our explanation.  But nah, you are late, go to the asy jet “help desk” and they will sort them out.  And yes they did.  We were charged another 50 pounds each to transfer our flight to the next available flight and that is the next morning and guess what?  It’s in Gatwick airport.  Brilliant.  Brilliant.  Brilliant.

So that’s it, that’s the real story behind why I am suddenly in Gatwick where I was supposed to be in Luton. 

Travelling with a kid and a couple of suitcases was not easy.  I felt the exhaustion of the whole day frustrations, tiredness, hunger etc.  I began to lose myself to temper.  My mood began to change.  My personal composure was totally gone.  I thought, this is too much and this will never happen again.  The thought of “this could have been avoided”, “if we could have set off earlier” “this is another massive expenses on top of the draining budget” were beginning to shatter me down.  I was beginning to hate this travel. 

I was knocked on my wall and defences.

Thinking all of my whole day experience, my colleagues’ experiences, I realized something that is essential.  Later through the day, something had happened to myself.  I came to a conclusion that we have been brought to this situations to test how far we can go.  And I am happy to know that everytime we were tried to be knocked down we fought back and we won.  We are winning.

We are going to the European Conference of the Couples for Christ and the team of this year is “Put on the Armour of God.” Ephesian 6:11.  Isn’t it just timely that on our way to attend this, thinking we are God’s army and we are all ready to face the battle to defend our faith, to fight for our God, we were tested to our very own limits?  God might be thinking (being a good God as He is) “shall I test these army of mine and see if they can defend their threshold, see if they can uphold through the storm of pressures and challenges”?

To this time I can claim God is rejoicing for we are not giving up.  We must have been shaken.  I knew Bro.  Bong might have felt frustrations (though he didn’t show it much) also.  I was certainly brought down but came back up, Bro. Adel was struck right to his very own weaknesses but never gave up.  I think as the flights goes near, we are winning.  We can claim that we never let our God down. 

In line with this realisation, three major lessons have learned. 

1.  God is good that He is good enough to use circumstances to let you know that He exists.  My whole day experience was clouded by different emotions but as I retire towards the end of the day, I certainly believe that this day was made for a reason.  I met a very kind person in the name of Tita Eleanor, I talked to great people along the way, and I’ve managed to purify myself and to how I wanted to be in this conference.  That this is not about me, not about my family, not about my friends but this is about God and it is God alone.
2.  Prayer is everything. I was thinking, If we would have started the day with the prayer, this could have been different.  Leaving the hotel and straight to the road without prayer was a big mistake.  The initial defence to protect ourselves towards evil deeds was neglected.  We let ourselves exposed to all evil spirit lingering about and so the evils ones tried.  I strongly suggest, never ever give that defence up.  That is powerful.  If we are rooted and connected to our Greater Link, then everything would have been a lot easier, emotions might have been controlled, patience might have been stretched.  Nothing would be done if we always rely on our own self.  This journey, as I realized, is supposed to be journey for God and yet we didn’t even trusted Him to take care this journey.  We forgot to entrust and surrender to Him everything.
3.  Be a Captain of each other.  Supporting one another is very vital.  In times that one is down we need someone pushing him back up.   By doing this, we don’t lose our focus.  We can be knocked down many times.  As many as the evil pleases him to do but if we stand strong side by side with each other we build a stronghold that will never be shaken even.  If one of us gave up and said, the journey ends here, then the rest of us might have given up as well.  The battle might have been fought but lost.

This is when I realized what the community is all about.  CFC is not just about being in the organization, or being part of the community.  But in times like this, you realized that community is all you have.  Support is vital.  You may journey yourself towards God, but I would say, it will never be enough.  We need (in my case I need) person, people to support us, encouraging us to get up when we are falling, when we are about to give up, when we are about to lose everything. 

That experience made me realized that we are all in this together. 

At the end, I could say that we can still shout and chant :

                “ We are armed and ready and we will fight for God’s greater glory.”