Whenever we plan a trip to the UK, we do so because we believe God is guiding us to make the visit. We certainly felt that way about our visit to England in May. A number of things had turned up, and as we prayed about them we felt the Lord’s assurance that it was right to make this trip.
So when the lady at the check-in at Fukuoka would not book us in for our 10:30 am flight to Seoul for the connecting flight to Heathrow on the 17th May, we wondered what was going to happen. Heathrow had been closed because of the ash problem. Had we made a mistake? Is God testing our faith? What do we do? We felt sure that God wanted us in UK at this time.
We decided to wait around for awhile, praying about it, phoning friends in Miyazaki to pray with us, and also the travel agent to get his input. He did say there was going to be an up date on the airport status at about 11:30 am an hour after our flight would have left. The check in lady did come over to us a bit later on to say she could book us through to Seoul, but could not guarantee the onward flight. The check in supervisor came over at about 10:20 to suggest that we cancel as there was no guarantee that we could get to England. We went over to the check-in with that in mind, but she said she couldn’t cancel us and that we should try for Seoul. So believing that we should trust God we stepped out in faith and checked in. We sensed God had wanted us to go to the UK at this time, and so we felt we should take the step and see what God would do with it. We hurried down to the gate, and we were soon waiting for the flight to leave. One of God’s encouragements was that when we opened the bin above our seats to put our hand luggage in, it was completely empty! Amazing! Our normal experience when travelling has always been full bins and trying to find space.
When we got to Seoul we found the check-in counter and they booked us on to the next flight, although there was to be a three hour delay. This looked promising. However, when the rescheduled time arrived, they cancelled the flight. God had his hand in this too. Korean Airlines divided us into two main groups, those in transit, which we were now, and those who were scheduled to start their journey from Seoul. When the first group had been cleared, we were then sorted out with immigration and a hotel for the night including meal vouchers. It was an interesting experience, because all passengers in transit were in the same difficult situation, the camaraderie was really good. We were able to get to know a few of our fellow passengers.
We had been told to get in touch with the airlines in the morning. This we did first thing after breakfast and were told that we would have to be put on standby, but this could only take place at the airport. We felt that it would be best to do this as soon as possible so had out names put on the list. We seemed to be near the top. Others began to turn up too and so we chatted and talked with different ones while we waited. We had noticed on the BBC news on the TV in the room the previous evening that flights were now landing, so it looked good. At about 11:30 am, we heard our names being called, and we were allowed to check in for the 1:15 pm flight. It was good to see God opening the way and to know we were on our way to England. We had free access to the internet after we were through immigration, and so we were able to get in touch with different ones to let them know what was happening.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. We were really pleased to see our daughter at the airport to meet us which was so appreciated, and we were back home in reasonably good time. We were ready for bed!
But that was not all. We were very conscious of the Lord arranging various visits and situations over the next couple of weeks in ways that amazed us. For example, when we popped in to see an elderly friend, we also met her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law’s mother at the house, folk we had also wanted to see. Another was a friend my wife knew from when she did a mums and toddlers group at church in Newent and with whom she had continued contact over the years. She made contact through Facebook not realizing we were back in UK and as she was off work there was an opportunity to arrange some time together. Another couple we were able to spend the night with at quite short notice prepared my wife to be able to help another lady whose daughter had a similar problem to theirs. God is great in how He prepares us for situations. We were able to visit a lady in her 90s who is beginning to have some memory problems, so we were glad of the opportunity to have had at least some time with her while she was still alert enough to share with us. All these different times made it clear why God had allowed us this visit, and we thank God for all He did to make the many opportunities possible.
It was also a helpful time to reconnect with family and with our children and grand children. It was particularly good to spend time with my wife’s siblings as well, when we attended the wedding of her nephew. It was the first time in over six years that they had all been together. Extra time was arranged to be together which was most profitable. It was particularly amazing, and normally could not be arranged even if attempted, and that was that my wife’s older brother, who lives in America, but is working in Malawi at the moment, should be leaving to go back to Malawi on the same day, at a similar time, from the same terminal, with departing gates side by side. That extra time was very special. And so we left to return to Japan praising God for the way the days had gone by and for all He had made happen. God still had people for us to meet.
We stayed overnight in a hotel in Fukuoka, and were to catch the highway bus back to Miyazaki the following day. In the morning when we came down for breakfast, a Vietnamese couple, now living in Australia came and joined us at our table. We had a very interesting time over breakfast. God was definitely in control and we thank God for all the people He allowed us to meet and to have time with.
God is sovereign. We have experienced it.
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