Eventful Trip, but God Is in Control

We are on our way back home to Germany and we were supposed to be home already. Instead we are still in the US... Why? I'll tell you in a minute.

After the GC Session we were blessed by the hospitality of our dear friend Melody who opened her cabin for us. After 10 intensive days in the prayer room, we were all exhausted. So spending time in nature of the Ozark Mountains was such a refreshment. Who cared that we had a flat tire on the way? Actually, it was not a flat tire, but the rubber started coming off the wheel. Here is the proof:

And who cared that the spare tire went flat after we put it on? Anyway, this might not seem a big thing, but since the car was FULL with luggage (and I really mean it when I say full), dealing with the flat tire took us a few good hours. 

The 10 days spent with Melody and he family were a balm for our souls... Resting and working on different projects in the peacefulness of her place, surrounded by trees and wild life (we have seen many deer, squirrels, rabbits and even a snake) was such a blessing. Mel even organised a late surprise birthday party for my birthday with one of the best vegan cheese cakes I have ever had!

Eating from the fresh produce of Sylvia's garden was another huge blessing! We have been more than blessed with the hospitality of the Masons.

So yesterday Mel dropped us at the airport and we started our journey back home. We made it safely to Charlotte, NC. Than we boarded the flight from Charlotte to London. I was hoping to be able to sleep, but I was not very successful, so I kept checking the GPS to see where are we and how far away we are from London. Two and a half hours into our trip I saw on the GPS that we are flying back. I thought it might be a mistake. I waited for a while and the GPS showed the same thing. I wanted to call the cabin crew to solve the dilemma. But I did not get to do that, cause the pilot finally decided to make an announcement: Because of security breaches on board in the business class, we were forced to go back. What that meant, we were not sure. But we were relieved that it is not a mechanical problem of the aircraft. So we flew back another hour and 50 minutes to Philadelphia. Once we got there, we were asked to stay in our seats until we are given further instruction. Since I could not see what is going on, I heard from a few people that some police came, handcuffed a lady and took her off the plane. A few minutes later we were told that we should take our belongings and wait in the airport for further instructions. When disembarking the aircraft, we could see the handcuffed lady right outside the plane being questioned by a group of police men.

Later on we found out more details: the lady was on medication and drank alcohol. That made her violent. She tried to break into the cockpit a few times. She was violent. She tried to get out of the airplane while we were in the air. She asked for a knife. She damaged a window. They used tape to handcuff her, but it did not help cause she broke it every time. So they had to turn around... since there was no way to calm her down and she was doing more damage.

So here we are, in Philadelphia. Thank God that they changed our tickets. And gave us a meal voucher for each one of us. And when you have a wise husband, a $10 meal voucher for one can feed very well two people for a meal. So we had two (almost) free meals today. I say almost because Roman had to pay one more dollar for each meal.

Though we do not understand why God allowed this, we are fully confident that He has a plan and that His plan is perfect. We are happy to be safe and thankful that we will be home 24 hours after we were planning to. I guess it could have been much worse.

We are fully trusting in the promise from Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."