"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
We tend to get pretty pumped about being on mission in our community (our "Jerusalem"). There is something special about being able to put your hands on it. To see something unfold with your own eyes... the direct impact of serving. But... the world gets smaller and smaller as we grow in our thinking. Our eyes are opened to the impact that we can have across the globe. Kenny had a "random" meeting this week at 30,000 feet. He took the time to share the experience with me and a few others via email... man I'm glad he did. Now I share it with you. The subject line of his email read: "WHAT A RIDE" What a ride indeed my friend... what a ride. He writes:
Guys, Just wanted to send you this note to let you know what a blessing I received today. As you all know I spend many boring days a year on an airplane traveling throughout North America When I got up this morning to drive to the airport, I expected nothing more than another long day of traveling to reach my final destination of Calgary Canada . Boy was I wrong!
I arrived in Tulsa this morning to the usual long lines and upset people. My trip was going as usual until I boarded my plane on my first leg to Chicago. While sitting at the gate, I noticed a dozen or so college aged kids sitting together waiting to board the plane. The whole time I’m sitting there, the thought running through my head was there is no way I will get any sleep on this flight with these kids on board. Well, I was right. When we boarded the plane, guess what, I was surrounded by every one of them. My trip was going downhill quickly, so I thought. They asked the usual questions, what if a bird flies into the engine, can lightning strike a plane, can you really get sucked out the window if it brakes, do the seat cushions really float, if the plane goes down can we jump right before it hits the ground and survive, can you go #2 on a plane. You get the picture?
Once they settled down and ran out of questions, I struck up a conversation with one of the young men sitting next to me. I had heard them talking about India while sitting in the terminal, so of course I asked why they were going to India He said they were going over to work with college students. Not wanting to seem nosy, I didn’t pursue it any further. We talked about where we lived, our families, our jobs, the college we attended, you know the normal stuff you talk about with a complete stranger at 30,000 feet.
Now the good part! Once we ran out of small talk, I asked the question “do you go to church” and that was all it took. It was like he was waiting for me to ask. He stated that he did attend church, and he also told me why they were going to India
They were going on a mission trip for a year to witness to the Hindo’s on Christianity. He talked for about 20 minutes on their mission and finally asked me if I attended church. I shared with him the story of how Johnny came to me as he did the rest of you and asked if we would be interested in starting a new church. I went on to tell him of the amazing things we have been able to do over the past year. He asked the name of our church and I told him it was called the Bod.
Here is where it gets really good! Remember, we are on a full flight with several hundred people. As soon as I said the words “The Bod” a kid behind me yelled out to one of his buddies “Dude this guy goes to the Bod”. At that point, I had their full attention. Come to find out, there were some young people in the group who attended LifeChurch. They all said that they had heard of our church and of course they wanted to know what our name represented. I told them, and they thought it was a cool name. We pretty much took over the plane for the rest of the flight. We talked about Craig and how many lives were being touched by the resources being provided by LifeChurch. We discussed the importance of Christianity in the world today and how we were making changes in people’s lives by spreading the word of Jesus. It was quite a touching experience for me. What I expected to be an annoying trip, turned out to be the most enjoyable flight I had ever been on. I gave the young man my business card and told him to email me to let me know how things were going in India. I told him I would be praying for him and I wanted him and his gang to come visit us when they returned from India. He said I had a deal!
You know we seem to get into a rut in our daily rituals and our surroundings become mindless when we do the same things on a regular basis. On my next flight I found myself asking these questions. What put me beside that young man this morning? What made me start up the conversation with him? What made me ask a complete stranger if he attended church? Why was he reserved about telling me the real reason they were going to India until he knew I was a Christian? Isn’t it amazing how God works in our lives? You all know I’m not real emotional and I don’t share a lot of my life journeys with people, but this was something that needed to be shared. I was truly blessed today.
By the way, my luggage didn’t make the trip with me. I am sitting in Calgary Canada where it is 52 degrees and all I have is a pair of shorts, tee shirt, and flip flops.
Don’t worry though, I am wearing my plaid shorts! I love you guys! Oh, somebody send this to my wife. I don’t have her email address with me. Tell her I love her too!
Have a good week,
Kenny R.
