In Reply to: A question for Kathy posted by Donny on August 05, 2003 at 21:30:03:
The morning of May 8th, 1982, Erich and I turned up at Hong Kong Airport with our three children and enough luggage to last us a lifetime, supremely confident that Singapore Airlines, which was taking us to Bombay, would be very sympathetic to our cause and would willingly take all our belongings to India for free. The lady behind the ticket counter heard my request just once, frowned, and summoned her Chinese supervisor. I don't know what she told him but he just stared at me. He walked over with his walkie talkie, asked us where we were from and where we were headed, listened politely as we told him our story, and then informed us that we owed the airline some astronomical amount for overweight luggage, explaining in detail that with five passengers, we were allowed 70 pounds each, which came to 350 pounds, and we had close to 1,300 pounds. I thanked him for doing my arithmetic for me, but I told him that we were missionaries and that we had not one dime to put towards overweight luggage costs, and that we needed his help to get our things to India. He said it was out of the question and walked off to attend to other matters.
We were taken aback, because we were so used to God opening doors for us, but we had purposely arrived very early in the morning just in case we ran into problems. However, as the hours ticked by and we were getting closer and closer to departure time, and this man showed absolutely no sign of relenting, I got more and more nervous. Ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, and twelve o'clock came and went. In situations like this, Erich usually backed me up 100 percent, but he made it plain that he thought it was a pretty tall order and he wasn't sure he had enough faith for it, but if I did, then he would back me up and stand behind me. Which is exactly what he did, and in fact, not just behind me, but behind the pillar, as well, so he didn't have to face the scrutiny of the Singapore Airlines staff, who by now were thinking we were the two strangest Americans they had ever laid eyes on.
At one o'clock, I broke out in a sweat, realizing that nothing and no one was going to help us, and the flight was due to leave within half an hour. I didn't know what to do. All I could do was weakly call on the Lord and ask Him to please get us out of this incredible mess we had gotten ourselves into. I said, "Lord, all these wonderful people donated so much in the way of time and money and materials to help us make this trip. Please don't let us lose it all now, Lord, at the last minute. Please do something, dear Lord. We desperately need Your help." I claimed the verses, "The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14), and "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles" (Psalm 34:17).
As I finished praying, I looked up, and the Chinese airline official who had been so stone-hearted was running towards us and the counter. Without even stopping, he fired off instructions to his staff who immediately started picking up all our luggage, tagging it, and putting it on the conveyor belt. Still running, he changed direction, beckoning us to follow him, and we took off at a gallop trying to keep up with him. It turned out he was headed toward our flight gate, hundreds of feet away, and while he was running, he was talking animatedly into his two-way radio, in the sing-song English so typical of that part of the world. "You know that cargo for such and such a company in Singapore? Well, it needs to come off. I have something urgent going to Bombay and it's on its way down to you right now." I heard the man loading the jet curse in annoyance, and ask him what was going on, because there were only ten minutes left until the plane left the gate and he would have to work extremely hard to get all this accomplished in time. The supervisor just said to him, "I don't have time to give you an explanation right now. Just please do as I say. It's urgent. This is accompanied baggage. It can't wait for the next flight."
With that, he switched off his walkie talkie, sank back against a steel beam, took a deep breath and explained to us what had happened. "I was in the men's room after lunch," he began. "Now, I am a Buddhist, but my wife has started following the Christian God. And while I was sitting there, my wife's God came into the bathroom where I was. He told me that I must help the American family going to India. And quite honestly, he was not one to be disobeyed. I said, 'Yes, Sir,' and I ran here to do what He told me."
Having given us the explanation, there wasn't a moment to lose and he ushered us onto the plane quickly. As the 747 pulled out from the bay, he was standing alone by the glass windows, waving goodbye to us, clearly in a daze. He looked as though he had really been touched by God that day, and truthfully, he had. I thanked God over and over for stepping in once again and rescuing me. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord" (Zecharaiah 4:6).