Africa 2013 Day Three

Today was an all day travel day so this entry will be short...er. We started the day early because even though our flight was not until 1:00p.m. we have had some lost baggage that contained very important items for the missionaries we were about to go visit. After many, many calls the bag was not to be found...not even to be tracked...even though we had the bag tag with all the tracking information. Basically, they said that they had no idea where the bag was. It was extremely important that we get this bag so Ross, a 30 year foreign missions veteran led us through the process and the bag showed up on a flight that landed just 40 minutes before we were supposed to leave that same airport. Things happen here on "central African time" which means whenever they get around to it. So there was no way to wait for the bag to hit the carousel. By a miracle of God, Nathan got through the security check point and into the baggage area and was able to identify the bag and have it loaded directly onto the next airplane. Problem solved...God is good...that is His nature. We then boarded a flight back to Johannesburg and from there connected with our flight to Lusaka, Zambia. The flights were where today's adventures came in. The flight from Malawi to Johannesburg had 30 high schoolers from an elite school in Nottingham, England. Nathan and I were not seated together and I ended up right square in the middle of these high school students. I was right at home. The flight was delayed due to a "security issue." As it turns out, these students had spent the weekend at a wildlife safari park and one of their teachers had found an elephant bone and decided to try to smuggle it out of the country. They found it...and confiscated it...and he was lucky they didn't take him to jail. And somehow he still made the flight. I sat next to one of the most thoughtful, bright teenagers I've ever talked with. His name was Sam and he was the equivalent to a junior in high school here in the states. He graduates next year. I talked with him about his F amily, I nterests, and R eligion and then I told him M y story. In talking about his family and religion he told me that his father was Catholic and his mother was nothing so they had decided not to push religion and see where their kids landed. He told me that he had landed squarely on atheism. And yet he was so very open to talking about God. I talked with him about the amazing design evident in the universe, in our planet, even in the human eye- a thousand times as complex as a swiss watch. He really seemed to be listening and affirmed that even though many evil things had been done in the world in the name of religion- so had much good. He shared that their group had done some relief work on their trip and that they had worked through a church. He stated that the thing he liked the most about that church was that they focused on doing good to others and left the whole God and Jesus discussions out of it. (What a sad, sad thing to be said of an institution that calls itself a church!) I went on to use Pascal's Wager ( the idea that if I live my entire life for God and experience a meaningful life and there is no God I've lost nothing but if you live your whole life ignoring Him and He is who he says he is then you've lost everything.) I could tell he had never heard this argument...and I quoted Hebrews 9 that says that every man has an appointment to meet God. I could tell it bothered him. He reiterated his position and the Holy Spirit let me know I had said enough. He gave me his email and even got his notebook out and wrote down the name of a book I recommended "The Case for Faith" by Lee Stroebel. Please, please take time to pray for this young man. He is a brilliant student who wants to do research in the area of physics. I know God could use him in a country where spirit filled evangelical churches are virtually non existent. Then things got weird! First of all, we saw a crowd gathering in the airport and found out that it was because R. Kelly, the King of R & B who wrote "I believe I can fly" was shopping in a sports store. His entourage and body guards actually closed down the store so that he could have the run of the place and shop without being "bothered" by his fans. ( I think he forgot they are the only reason he got where he is in the first place...and btw...where is he anyway?) Then, on the next leg of our flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka we sat together alongside a young African man. He was dressed very cool and seemed to be a happy go lucky kind of guy. But, 3 minutes into the flight he got very agitated and ask us to let him out to go to the restroom. Then he came back and did the same thing several more times. Then he asked me if I knew "Sting" and then he began to call out to one of the flight attendant repeatedly asking him if his name was "Sylvester." At one point he went down the aisle of the plane to go to the restroom again but halfway there dropped his pants. By now, the flight attendants were fully aware he was a problem and they worked together repeatedly to get him to come back and sit down (right beside me!...I was happy when he was in the aisle) I was convinced the man was high on something. At one point he asked if he could have Nathan's salad so Nathan handed it to him. He stared intently at if for several minutes studying it closely and then gave it back. This was when Nathan leaned over and suggested that this was demonic possession. I had not even thought of this but it made perfect sense. When he left us and went to the front of the plane several times he became much more calm and docile. But each time when they forced him to sit with us he became agitated. I decided to test this out by mentioning the name of Jesus to him. I asked him if he knew who Jesus Christ was and suddenly, he began to curse profusely when he had not uttered one curse word before that. He kept his arm on my armrest so I put my elbow on his and began to silently pray that Satan would be bound from our lives and that this poor man would be freed from the bondage in which he was living. He repeatedly refused to follow the flight attendant's instructions and that's just not something you do nowadays. So, when we finally landed, they asked everyone on the plane to remain seated while the took care of a security matter. A security detail entered the plane and took the man out safely without incident. Please pray for this young man named Jason. It was very sad. We could hardly help but laugh at first at some of his strange behavior. But I thought later about the fact that he was the same age as Ryan, my oldest son. I thought about how much it would hurt if he was my son and was caught up in this kind of bondage and oppression. It reminds me of an old saying: the devil will take you farther than you ever wanted to go and keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay and it will cost you more than you ever thought you would pay. GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME. Thank you for your continued prayers. Please pray for safety. It's midnight and we leave at 6:00a.m. and will make a 4 hour drive up into the mountains on roads that are less than the best.