"We'll have chicken..."

Some sort of verbal scuffle started behind us on the flight today. Something about the special meal type and some seat changes and though the rumble started quietly, I could hear a gentle flight attendant trying to calm the passengers.

Female flight attendant…“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to offend you.  I’m sorry, yes I am very sorry. Sir, I am truly sorry.  I am doing the best I can.” 

The other voice, gruff and angry…”it’s not fine, we want vegetarian, we do not want Hindu meals.”

“I’m sorry sir, some people have changed seats and we are trying to bring the correct meals to the people who have requested them, I am really very sorry.”

Gruff and angry… “I am offended, we are not beggars (?) …”

From the opposite aisle the stern voice of her hero ... “Sir, she has said she was sorry.  Sir, she has apologized 100 times, you need to calm down.”

“I want my meal…”

Hero… “Sir, you don’t to want to mess with me”

Gruff and angry… “We’ll have the chicken.”

Peace.

Mark 14:6,8  “Leave her alone… She did what she could…” 

Jesus spoke this to dinner guests at Bethany, regarding a woman pouring expensive perfume on his head.  To the onlookers and scoffers it seemed wasteful and extravagant, foolish even and yet Jesus protects and defends.  

I just love a chivalrous moment…a protector/defender and the vulnerable. As long as we have Mark 14, we know what a hero looks like and as we plan for reentering our home away from home, we’ll need one.

As we lay our heads down in Saudi Arabia tonight (just typing that makes me wonder when my life was hijacked) we anticipate another long day tomorrow of driving, walking, flying, landing, walking, sweating, carrying, riding, meeting, and then driving FOREVER to get back to Jinja.  The highlight will be the roadside chicken on a stick, about half way.

We look so forward to playing, singing and worshiping with Chayah’s family.  The reunion is always sweet and for a few hours the greeting will consume all of our attention and set a refresh in our hearts and purpose in our plans.

The enemy watches every effort.  Every trip, we have those that stand with us but just as predictably, those that are the “onlookers and scoffers”.  To be clear, our battle is not against flesh and blood, it’s just that often the messages from our enemy are dealt by the hand of humanity.  

If confidence and success or a measure of bricks in the right place is going to be the yard stick that tells us to carry on or keep moving, we would have lost our place years ago.  If it is a sideways glance or a corrupt official that is to derail us, we would already be off the track.  With every effort, every new step there is discouragement and fear and the unknown and a new place to fail.  

And there are scoffers and onlookers and people who from the backseat call out our mistakes, our short falls…but we have hero, a defender, a protector and his name is Jesus.

This trip we take on brand new territory.  Well water, power poles, brick buildings all added to the relationships we enjoy with every single visit.  Something new, something difficult, something familiar but foreign in more than just geography.  

As you pray for us this trip, let it be that we are not afraid of the enemy’s scoffing and that at each turn we hear Jesus say “leave them alone, they are doing what they can.”