Plane ride from Purgatory

The other passangers were calling it,"The plane ride from Hell." My personal thought is that if it were the plane ride from Hell, we would have crashed and blown up, burning to death. But we didn't, we were just simply refined and had our faith stretched, our patience expanded, and our stomachs excercised as we fought off severe nausia and motion sickness.

So here's what happened. I fell asleep around 1 or 2 AM on the 8th of December. Part of it was excitement that I got to go home for Christmas. The other part was some girls decided that they were going to go outside my window and express their joy at freedom from school by feral screaming. I guess they forgot that some people still think nighttime is for sleeping.
Anyway, I then woke up at 5 AM the next morning and got ready to go. Nicole drove me to the airport and we hugged goodbye and wished each other a Merry Christmas.
Once at the ticketbooth, the guy was convinced that it would be faster if I changed my flight from flying into Minneanapolis and then flying to Omaha to drive home, to flying into Memphis then Omaha, and then driving home. I said I didn't want to change it but he insisted and I was too tired to argue.
Biggest mistake of the day!!!
I found out later that a flight to Minneanapolis was cancled and the person was pretty sure it was my flight. I can only hope, because it helps ease the intense frustration I felt at the poor dude at the ticket counter.
So I got onto the airplane. Business as usual. Normal safety procedures demonstration, normal introducing yourself to the person sitting next to you and then pulling out your book, normal, "Why on earth are you reading Albert Mohler's latest book for PLEASURE?!" conversation (okay I've never done that before but the conversation that insued was pretty normal. 'What are you doing with your life and why, hunh okay you are interesting but wierd' conversation) etc.
Until we got to Tennessee. Then the nice normal scenery of cool bumpy carpet-like clouds below us and wispy clouds above us changed to complete white of clouds all around us. And they started to get grey. The Captian announced that Memphis was experiancing some storms, but not to worry, we would land soon.
The turbulance started getting bad and my stomach began commenting about how it would like to either land or go home now.
The stewardess or flight attendant or whatever we call them these days then got on and said that we still couldn't land and would be circling for a while.
A half hour later it was announced that we were going to fly into Nashville as we were running out of fuel.
Oh joy.
So we landed in Nashville and parked. We then noticed that there was a plane that had landed before us and three others were pulling up. Not good.
They finally gave us a gate and we pulled in. I was able to get out and call my friend who was going to pick me up at the airport in Omaha and call my parents to let them know what was up. CNN said that flights in Memphis and Baltimore were backed up by an hour. Joy.
I decided that I didn't really want to go to Memphis at that point. I could re-switch my flight and go to Minneanapolis as planned. Unfortunately quite a few other people had the same idea and as soon as I was the next person in line the Captain came running down the gangway and told everyone to get back on the plane.
So we did, and fifteen minutes later we took off again. They had re-fueled and were going to try to land in Memphis.
As soon as we got close to Memphis the clouds went from white to dark gray and the turbulance was terrible. My stomach said if I didn't do something it would go on strike. So I closed my eyes and began praying kind of hard.
We kept that up for what felt like an hour but was probably 15 minutes before the Captian announced that once again we were running out of fuel and would have to find someplace else to land, and Huntsville Alabama would probably be it.
"What, are we doing a tour of all the 'ville' airports in the South?" Someone asked.
So we arrived in Huntsville, Alabama. We were all glad to be on the ground but starting to wonder how we were going to make our connecting flights as it was 11 at that point.
The captains voice crackled on the speaker, "Uhhh.. Ladies and Gentlemen, we will deplane as soon as we can, but no one is answering us at the airport and we don't know if they have a gate for us or not... so as soon as we get ahold of someone, then we'll let you know what we know."
Seriously?!?!
"What, no one noticed there's an extra plane just parked out there?" A businessman asked.
Several minutes later another voice crackled over the intercom.
"This is the manager of the airport. We want to welcome you to Huntsville, Alabama. Right now we are experiancing an unusual situation with the storm in Memphis, and we have a lot of people in our airport who don't belong. So we're gonna just ask you to sit tight till we figure something out."
"They are not going to make us sit here the whole time! How long is that going to be?" people started asking. It was now almost 12 and our flight had left at 7:30 am.
"This is the manager of the airport again. The Captain has requested that we allow you to deplane. So we'll allow you to come up to the gate, but do not I repeat DO NOT enter the main airport or we will not allow you to come back. You don't have a boarding pass for any other flight as you aren't even supposed to have landed here. We will let you know once we know something what your next course of action will be." He then told us about their coffee shop/snack shack/'hot dog stand' where we could get food in the airport and repeated a few warnings about not leaving the terminal we were in.
So we went into the airport and got lunch. Ten bucks for a tea, a water, and a sandwhich. I hate eating in airports. It's SO not worth the money!!
So I ate with two other ladies from my flight and we watched in growing perturbation as CNN announced that the storm system in Memphis was slowly taking over the midwest.
"They had better not leave us here!" One lady commented, and the two began saying how this was the plane flight from hell.
Hmm... no, more like the plane ride from purgatory! We hadn't crashed, we had just all felt somewhat sick during the turbulence and were having beautiful opportunities to practice patience!
I personally stayed in Huntingville (or huntsville, I still can't remember it's name) until 5:30. They were able to change my flight so that I could fly into Cincinnatti and then straight home instead of flying into Omaha. Yay!!
So i arrived around 9:45. At 10:00 I discovered that while I was able to make the flight to Cincinatti, none of my luggage had!! Part of the problem was that I had switched from Northwest Airlines to Delta, and my bags apparently made it to Omaha, where i was originally supposed to go!! So the bags apparently made it to Omaha this morning, and should get here tonight or tomorrow. Usually it's the younger sister stealing clothes from the older sister's closet, but apparently my sister and I are gonna pull a switch-er-oo on the ol' tradition. Fortunately we're built pretty similar she's just taller and has a shorter torso.
Okay I want my own clothes!!

So anyway. There's my latest adventure! I was able to help out a pregnant mom by playing with her six-year old and four-year old (and every once and a while her 13 month old) daughters by coloring with them and playing on the wheelchair with them. So my arms hurt now but we had fun. :-D
So yeah.... there's my wonderful traveling story for this six-month period. Woot woot!

So now I'm home, which is great, and have been shown or am discovering the latest changes and updates and recent homework and cooking victories by my siblings and catching up with mom. Yay!!
And I still need to finish reading Acts through Revelation and write an 8 to 20 page paper on a summary of one of those books before next week. *sigh* Ah well. I sort of brought it upon myself by signing up for so many D-and-J-terms.

More later!

~Princess Ouch~

"Fear in a 'feel-good age'"

"The idea of going through life fearing both God and the consequences of sin seems unattractive in our age where people are so devoted to good feelings. Fear is considered a bad feeling, and therefore people think it is wrong....
Some might say that temporary joy through sin is better than a life of fear and trembling. I respond that this fear and trembling is the gateway to lasting and truly satisfying joy. When we fear the holiness of God and the consequences of sin, we avoid sin. But we do not turn from sin into a vacuum; we embrace life to the full (John10:10. We do not spend the rest of our days wishing that we could have had the experience of the sin we avoided. We are glad that we escaped that enslavement and are now "free indeed" (John 8:34-36). We are glad that God freed us to enjoy Him, for He is not only holy, He is also loving. The Bible says that God delights in us (Ps. 147:11) and that we delight in Him (Psalm 43:4). When we run away from sin, we run into the arms of one whom we love and delight in and who loves us and delights to give us joy. We say with David, "You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand." (Psalm 16:11).
Thus, the fear of displeasing GOd and of the consequences of sin does not take away the enjoyment of life. It is rather the gateway to true enjoyment."

~Ajith Fernando. Acts. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998. Pages 206-207

New Testament musings

"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith... only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry."
~2 Timothy 4:5-7, 11~

"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."
~2 Peter 1:12-16~

I'm taking a New Testament class as a Mid-term (only we call them J-terms here. Other colleges call them "Intensives" which I think is the best description but no one asked me. Pity)
Speaking of NT2, I really should be studying for that test tomorrow... well, wanted to quick bang out some thoughts before I subjected myself to MORE studying.

I have a lot of friends overseas. This is a blessing and a curse, because for the most part they are all cool people with fun perspectives, wacky senses of humor, and bless my socks off, and are thousands of miles away so we can't keep in contact very often.
(this DOES have something to do with the above Bible verses, I promise you.)
I have one friend in particular who has repeatedly told, asked, commanded, exhorted, and requested that I keep in touch consistantly. However this friend is a person of few words so doesn't return the favor as much as I'd like. Which drives me nuts.
A lot of times I think of how unfair it is that God put all these neat people in my life only to assign us to different parts of the world shortly after.
I've met a lot of cool people here at college too, and the constant thought on my mind is that most of my best friends are called to be Missionaries also, but to completely different parts of the world. I'm going to one of the more 'civilized' and 'safe' cultures, to be honest.
One thing that is often on my mind is, how cool is it that there are so many young people excited about God gathered to this one place for training, encouragement, and new friendships. But it is going to be sad and hard when Graduation day comes and we all go our separate ways.
However, we have this wonderful thing called Email, and Facebook, international-phone cards, the loverly accomadation of Skype, etc.

Back in the 'olden days' of the early church, they didn't have any of that.

A lot of times it's easy for me to think of the 'founding fathers of the faith' to be Saintly men who were above normal emotion and who got it perfect (until they didn't, at which time they got a rebuke from Jesus or had a council about it, straightened everything out, and then went back to being perfect) BUT the passages that I put above show that they were men with deep feelings also. It struck me today as we went over these verses how peaceful they talked about their approaching death. A subject that comes up for us going into Missions a lot is persecution and martyrdom. The other Majors think we're a little wacky amd(whatever the name is for those who like to inflict pain upon themselves).
I personally don't like pain. I try to avoid it at all costs. There's more than one reason why I don't have any tatoos.

The writings of the New Testament, especially in Acts, gives a different paradigm on suffering and pain.
"And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." Acts 6:41

The picture shown us in Acts 2 is so awesome.
"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daiily such as should be saved."
Acts 2:44-47
Now don't get the wrong idea, I don't believe in Communism. ;-)
But I love how they made sure they all had ENOUGH.
Our society is one of "more more, it's all about me, what MORE can I aim for?"

I have high ambitions but they aren't for MORE. It's for ENOUGH to do what I have been called, which is to go to the 'Least of these' and the 'forgotten' to show Christ's love to them in tangible ways.

So lessons I've been learning through the last week; honor in pain and shame, God's provision for ENOUGH, counting the blessings that He has given, and...
now I have to go study for the test tomorrow on all of this.
*sigh*
My apologies if this email embodies my random global nature. But as I said, this was a MUSING, not a sermon. ;-)Hope it made sense.

~Princess Ouch~