More Waiting-Some Tense

As I said before, travel is waiting. Waiting in airports for connections, waiting in long tubes in the sky (aka airplanes), waiting for baggage to appear on the belt, waiting in customs lines, waiting to remove your shoes so they can be x-rayed, waiting to for your seat to be called.  So waiting is travel and therefore on a mission trip, waiting is ministry. It is travel to the location, and seeking opportunities on the way.

Of course a good meal can help break up the waiting. Now, I'm in the camp that believes that posting pictures of your food is annoying. The only exception is food on mission trips. Meals on mission trips have the distinction of unusualness which makes them acceptable social media content. The airline meal below is unusual because it breaks the stereotype of airline food. It was really good. Culinary experiences on LAN have always been great. They make the wait more tolerable.

One unnerving time of waiting was in Lima. We all arrived together and found all our bags, praise the Lord. All was well until David's bags got to customs in Lima. Most of us sailed through the x-ray machines and we went on into the domestic terminal. We noticed the Millsaps and Isenhours didn't follow. We decided to press on assuming they would be along.

We lined up in the group check-in line and slowly started toward the desk. No sign of the two families. Each of us were checked through, baggage tags in place, and bags on the conveyor to the bag manglers (spelling intended). We looked hopingly in the direction that the Millsaps and Isenhours should be coming to no avail. Again we pressed on.

Upstairs we started through domestic security, one eye on the door, hoping to see the other two families come through. Not rewarded. We moved on to the gate to wait more. I asked the attendant, and he said they were confirmed on the plane. I thought that was good news until Judy said we were checked through from Charlotte.

Cindy and I went back to the x-ray to watch. Finally, we saw the Millsaps, but not the Isenhours. David got through, but we saw Walker wasn't admitted. Later he said he couldn't find his boarding pass-he lost it in his pocket.

Soon the Isenhours appeared and we were all in sight of each other again. The Millsaps and Isenhours arrived at the gate just as the plane began to board.

So why did we have to go through this tense waiting episode? Speculation about spiritual lessons aside, let's stick to just the facts. This story starts back in the US. Someone sent a laptop and two two-way radios to David asking him to take them to Pastor Pablo. David packed them.

Fast forward to Lima. An over anxious customs inspector noticed the bags of eyeglasses in David's suitcase and tried to tell him that they were not allowed. He was rescued by an inspector with a more practical approach. She said, "they're with a church group, let him through."

But then the inspector noticed the radios. Radios required permits. David didn't have permits. That equation equals delay. The Isenhours waited with the Millsaps while the problem was dealt with. David was escorted to a small room with an ancient inspector who took his time telling David the radios were confiscated. David plans to try to pick up the radios on the way home.

You know those airport warning messages about not taking items from people you don't know? Maybe we need to extend that to well-intentioned donators of radios as well.