Airport Fog Expedites Journey

Isaiah 41:10

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁰     So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
        don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
    I will strengthen you, help you.
        I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.

The landing lights of the Nairobi International Airport stretched straight off into the distance as our East African Airways flight banked into the final approach. I had gotten on the flight in Musoma, Tanzania, on the eastern shores of the mighty Lake Victoria. We had landed in Mwanza, Tanzania, on the south shore and then Entebbe, Uganda, on the west, and now we had flown to Nairobi where this flight ended, and the well over a hundred people on board were very anxious to disembark.

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I entertained several fears. It was December, and I was en route to Lusaka, Zambia, and a Christmas road trip with my parents to Rhodesia and South Africa. Due to their apartheid policies, these two countries were black listed in Tanzania. I wasn’t sure how much trouble we would have getting back into Tanzania where we were serving as missionaries. Sylvia and our four month old Esther had flown to Malawi earlier with the mission pilot. I had remained at Ikizu Secondary School in Tanzania to finish up the academic year.

More immediate misgivings were how I would get a room tonight in Nairobi and then get back to the airport early in the morning to catch the next flight from there to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and then on to Blantyre in Malawi and finally to Lusaka.

Suddenly the jet engines roared to full throttle and the plane started to climb. We were in a cloud for a little while and then the sky went black as we leveled off above the clouds.

After a quarter of an hour, I said to the man sitting next to me, “We’re flying round in circles.”

“How do you know?” he asked skeptically.

“I’ve seen Venus come by the window several times.”

“I know nothing about the stars.” He said flatly.

We flew for an hour more before the voice of the pilot cracked into life from the plane’s speakers, “We were lined up to land when the fog settled onto the runway. We’ll fly around for another half-hour and then, if the fog doesn’t lift, we’ll have to fly to Dar es Salaam before we run out of fuel.” Mild cursing came from many up and down the aisle.

Twenty-five minutes later my seat mate asked me, “Are we still flying around in circles?”

“Yes,” I responded. We were all very tired and lapsed into silence again. About a quarter of an hour later I added, “We’ve been flying in a south-east direction for about five minutes now.”

He cussed quietly. About ten minutes later the pilot announced that we were headed to Dar es Salaam. We would land in about an hour and a quarter. The airline would put us up in a hotel for the night, and they would try and arrange transport back to Nairobi in the morning. He apologized for any inconveniences this might cause us. Loud and fluent cussing went up and down the aisles.

As far as I know, I was the only one on that plane who was rejoicing. I would get a good night’s rest at the airline’s expense, and they had just solved my problem of how to get onto the Blantyre bound plane in the morning.

Lord God, thank You for using an inconvenient natural event to aid me in my quandary. Thank You for always being ready to help in large matters and in small.

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[i] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwUQ8ZJ5CyGczQUOo0cQM3Hw_ARaBUxdTmfOorT48FIsUuowYQra1U5UQi5xRW1mIGoRm_3LfLQXJmSFq942yMU51p0W-3EAasMaEQSrO44s5WVJsYLIkrtwBqhSaS5JPsNzfzL6AGNnAh/s1600/IMG_4828.JPG