In the Hands of Unseen Angels

Thank you for praying for our journey home.  We are in the air between Delhi, India and Bangkok, Thailand, and it has already been quite an adventure.  It started with our taxi driver arriving 20 minutes later than we had requested.  Okay, we’re talking Nepal; that isn’t really late.  We are so thankful that we actually follow the “three hours early” international flight rules; it gives time for the unexpected.  Just 50 yards into the journey, we hit our first “unexpected.”  The taxi got stuck in the mud at a corner and could not make the turn.  (This is monsoon season, even though the rains haven’t been that heavy yet.)  The side door of the taxi (van) was pressed up against the vegetation and rocks and could not be opened.  We all chose to exit the taxi by the front passenger door.  The four strongest among us (Dave, DW, Nick and the driver’s assistant) got in front of the taxi and started working to rock it out of the mud.  The rest of us stood up on a ledge above the taxi “just in case anything happens” (as moms can be known to say).  They successfully got the van out of the mud and turned onto the steeply inclined downhill path, but what happened next was completely unexpected and I’m not even entirely sure exactly how and why it happened.  I know that the van began to careen down the path and the men on the edges of the front quickly jumped out of its way.  However DW was right in the middle of the front of the van and I saw the van push him backward.  I remember screaming out loud, “LORD JESUS, PLEASE SAVE DW!”  And then I saw the 12-foot skid of the tires on the pathway.  With great relief, I also saw DW in the bushes on the side of the path, about eight feet down from where the van first began to push him down.  It took at least five minutes for everybody to get over the shock (Joshua burst into tears, out of concern for his “uncle DW”), particularly the driver, who apologized more than once.

When we got to the Kathmandu airport, we were told that the flight between Delhi (our next destination) and Bangkok had been oversold, so they weren’t sure that they could get us to Bangkok.  They asked us to sit down near the check-in counter and wait for 1 ½ hours at which time they would be able to re-book us directly to Bangkok, on another airline.  That sounded great to us.  We easily passed the time, waiting and hoping to get up to the next level where we could get something to eat.  After that 1 ½ hours, as the flight to Delhi was boarding, they called us up to check our bags to Delhi, because somehow the flight was no longer overbooked.  We rushed onto the aircraft, missing our opportunity to eat.  The strangest part of this was when they put us on a bus at the airport doorway, to drive us about 100 yards, so that we could board the plane that was about 50 yards from the doorway we had just exited.  Some things defy understanding in a different culture.

So, we made it to Delhi, where they rushed us to the front of the security line, because our flight to Bangkok was already boarding, and for some strange reason, we got stopped because of something in Jake’s bag that looked like a “file or a knife.”  They sent different items of his bag through the scanner at least a half dozen times and finally narrowed it down to his toiletries bag.  It wasn’t anything in the bag but something about the bag.  Just when I was convinced that they were going to slice the seams of the bag to see if something was stitched inside the fabric, they decided there was nothing there and let us go.  Then we had to get through another inspection of our passports.  Again Jake was stopped because his passport expires 12 days shy of 6 months from today, and we were told that he had to have at least six months left until his passport expiry date in order to stay in Thailand.  What?  In the end, the problem was resolved when we learned that this applies only to Indian citizens, not American citizens.  No time to try and understand that one; we went on a mad dash across the airport (I didn’t know Ana could move so quickly; we could barely keep up with her).

We got on the plane in time, and the only excitement so far is the puddle of urine in the lavatory that results from so many passengers unfamiliar with a western toilet.  Ah, the adventures one can have in this world.  I’ll write more before I post this, as the journey continues.  We really are thankful for those who lift us up before the throne of God.  There is a battle going on in the spiritual realm.  And yet I am absolutely convinced that nothing will come our way that isn’t filtered through our Father’s hand.  We are trusting in Him wholeheartedly.  If we were seeking safety and comfort, we would certainly have never left the salt-shaker.  But then again, what good is salt that stays in the shaker?  DW’s final words when we left him this morning were, “God is good.”  Amen!  And Nick cast a pearl my way when this flight started:  “You know we had some potential disasters/problems this morning, but in the end, nothing bad really happened.”  I praise the LORD for the maturity of our oldest son.  By the way, Spokane dwellers, Nick has just surpassed my height; I guess he is growing in all sorts of ways.

Until later…

The only other adventure we had was when the plane was just over the runway, about to touch down, and then it began to rise again into the air and circle the airport.  The pilot said this was due to “too much traffic on the runway.”  Unfortunately, all of that circling brought on Nathan’s motion sickness that he had managed to avert up until that point in the flight.  We are so blessed that he has the grit to face challenges with a “can-do” attitude.  We are all happily settled now in our favorite guest house in Bangkok.  We feasted on roasted chicken, sticky rice, real milk and ice cream for dinner.  We’ll have four days here and then finish our trip back to our other home.  We expect to be in Spokane on Wednesday evening.

Thank you for taking the adventure with us,
Kimberly, for the Beine Bunch

P.S.  The views of “mountains sitting on clouds,” as we left the Kathmandu valley, were incredible!