Unstoppable Joy
"Hurry, hurry! Chew and swallow or we are going to miss our flight!" We rushed Jessica to finish her Chili's dinner so that we could run to terminal B to catch our 6:00 PM flight. With a mouth full of fajita, she snatched her bag off the table. We grabbed our luggage and raced to the gate like Olympic speed-walkers.
"Have you heard? Have you heard?" One of our team members asked frantically as we approached our designated gate. I shook my head just as he announced, "Our flight has been cancelled."
Just a few minutes earlier, I had told our team leader, "Can you believe how smooth our travels have been? We haven't had a single problem!" I guess I spoke too soon.
"Aw, man. I stuffed my face with that fajita for nothing," Jessica said as we all laughed.
After an amazing week in Nicaragua, nothing could crush our spirits, not even a cancelled flight. We sat in the terminal and waited for the next report from our group leaders about what we were going to do. In the meantime, we laughed and reminisced as we reviewed all our pictures and videos together.
By 11:00 , after approximately 5 hours in the terminal, we started to lose a little bit of that rushing energy and joy. "Sooooo...what are we going to do?" we began to ask each other. Our group leaders informed us that our large group of twenty-six people was too large to put on one flight, so we would have to split into smaller groups of twos and threes to somehow find a connecting flight to Little Rock or Memphis. With that, they put us up in a hotel and gave us vouchers for dining.
By 12:30 AM, we arrived at our hotel - a Hilton. It was like the angels were singing the Hallelujah chorus when we walked in the doors. "I have never stayed at a hotel like this in my whole entire life!" one girl whispered in awe as we entered the ballroom-like lobby with high glass ceilings, patterned rugs, and huge shiny pillars.
Upon registering, we learned that there was a Chinese restaurant that delivered until 1:00 AM. Not having had dinner, we counted up our vouchers and realized we had $90 for a midnight Chinese feast! The five of us girls ordered $90 worth of shrimp fried rice and oriental noodle entrees as well as egg rolls for an appetizer and four pieces of cheesecake for dessert. When that meal arrived and the girls walked in the room with boxes and boxes of food, it was an unbelievable sight! We had a Chinese feast in the Hilton hotel at 1:00 in the morning. And oh how we laughed about it! Were we college students or what?
Nothing could take away our joy.
The next morning, we all headed to the airport to catch our various flights. We were literally headed six different directions. Trying to keep up with who was going where and at what time was confusing enough, and then the delays began.
"I thought you guys were supposed to be gone by now."
"Well, we were supposed to, but our flight got delayed an hour."
"Hey, go check the departures and see what is going on."
"We got delayed another 30 minutes."
"Our gate just got moved to terminal A and we are now leaving two hours later."
"You don't have time for dinner, you need to be going to your gate right now!"
"Oh, you didn't hear? We are delayed until 9:00 PM."
"Hey, I just checked again and we aren't supposed to leave until 11:30 PM."
By 7:00 PM, there was a huge pile of college students laying in the hallway of the terminal eating airport food for the fifth time and using their carry-on back packs as pillows. We looked more like a pile of poor, sick, tired, haven't-showered-in-days ragamuffins. With sleepy eyes, unbrushed teeth, and uncombed hair, we were also wearing the same clothes that we had worn the past two days. Needless to say, every person that walked around our pathetic pile stared at our ridiculous (but hilarious) sight. We looked like we had lived in the airport for days, and we felt like it, too!
Each flight must have been delayed at least six times. By the end of the day, we had been in the airport for almost 36 hours.
In the middle of that madness, a thought occurred to me that I needed to express to the group. "You know," I got everyone's attention. "We have had such an amazing week in Nicaragua, that I think this is opposition. The enemy recognizes the joy of the Lord that we have, and he will do everything he can to try to stop it. Well, we are not going to let that happen!"
So instead of groaning and complaining the whole time, we decided to continue our mission trip with joyful and thankful spirits.
I told all this to the man beside me as I sat down on the small jet to Little Rock at 10:32 PM. "I have been waiting on this plane for four hours!" he announced with a hint of frustration in his voice that he did not hide very well. "Really? We have been here since 2:00 yesterday!" I said with the biggest smile on my face. The other passengers gasped, first because they felt so sorry for me and then because they thought I was crazy for being so happy about it. I continued, "We just got back from a mission trip to Nicaragua. It was so awesome that nothing can take away our joy! That is why I am still so happy." Many passengers turned around to mind their own business, but the man beside me seemed intrigued. I spent the rest of the flight telling him about our trip, our mission, and my own personal calling to missionary work. When our flight landed at 11:30, we bid a happy farewell.
Just in case we hadn't been through enough already, of course our luggage did not arrive. There was still another flight yet to land in Little Rock at 1:00 AM with four more Harding students on it. They also needed a ride back to school, so the three of us on my flight decided to wait just a little while longer for them and for our luggage. Only a few bags arrived at that time, so we loaded up my car with suitcases and people and headed back to Searcy.
At 3:30 AM, as I crawled into my bed, I could not stop smiling and laughing for several reasons. First, my bed felt so incredibly good. Second, let's be honest: those past two days had been hilarious. What should have taken nine hours took over forty-two. I kept thinking about that Chinese dinner at 1:00 AM and the pile of scraggly Harding students on the airport floor. That's pretty funny. And third, we had just experienced one amazing, Spirit-filled mission trip to Jinotega with a group of cool Harding students, inspiring missionaries, and amazing Nicaraguans.
There is nothing that can take away that joy.
That is because it comes from the Holy Spirit. Its source is beyond circumstance. No matter what happens, no matter how inconvenient, frustrating, or upsetting, the joy of the Lord cannot be snatched, stolen, or stifled. It is not swayed or shaken. This joy is a gift offered to all of us every day, and I testify that there is nothing as freeing as this gift of joy.
There is nothing that can take away that joy.
Unwrap this gift layer by layer. Reach deep into the package labeled from the Lord with your name on it. Inside, you will find the fruit of the Spirit of joy - not the happiness that the world offers, but the joy that finds its source in the deep unending well of God Himself. This well never runs dry, this God never changes, and this joy never fails. In fact, it is quite satisfying, delightful, and even contagious like a wild fire across dry plains.
May nothing take away our joy.
"Have you heard? Have you heard?" One of our team members asked frantically as we approached our designated gate. I shook my head just as he announced, "Our flight has been cancelled."
Just a few minutes earlier, I had told our team leader, "Can you believe how smooth our travels have been? We haven't had a single problem!" I guess I spoke too soon.
"Aw, man. I stuffed my face with that fajita for nothing," Jessica said as we all laughed.
After an amazing week in Nicaragua, nothing could crush our spirits, not even a cancelled flight. We sat in the terminal and waited for the next report from our group leaders about what we were going to do. In the meantime, we laughed and reminisced as we reviewed all our pictures and videos together.
By 11:00 , after approximately 5 hours in the terminal, we started to lose a little bit of that rushing energy and joy. "Sooooo...what are we going to do?" we began to ask each other. Our group leaders informed us that our large group of twenty-six people was too large to put on one flight, so we would have to split into smaller groups of twos and threes to somehow find a connecting flight to Little Rock or Memphis. With that, they put us up in a hotel and gave us vouchers for dining.
By 12:30 AM, we arrived at our hotel - a Hilton. It was like the angels were singing the Hallelujah chorus when we walked in the doors. "I have never stayed at a hotel like this in my whole entire life!" one girl whispered in awe as we entered the ballroom-like lobby with high glass ceilings, patterned rugs, and huge shiny pillars.
Upon registering, we learned that there was a Chinese restaurant that delivered until 1:00 AM. Not having had dinner, we counted up our vouchers and realized we had $90 for a midnight Chinese feast! The five of us girls ordered $90 worth of shrimp fried rice and oriental noodle entrees as well as egg rolls for an appetizer and four pieces of cheesecake for dessert. When that meal arrived and the girls walked in the room with boxes and boxes of food, it was an unbelievable sight! We had a Chinese feast in the Hilton hotel at 1:00 in the morning. And oh how we laughed about it! Were we college students or what?
Nothing could take away our joy.
The next morning, we all headed to the airport to catch our various flights. We were literally headed six different directions. Trying to keep up with who was going where and at what time was confusing enough, and then the delays began.
"I thought you guys were supposed to be gone by now."
"Well, we were supposed to, but our flight got delayed an hour."
"Hey, go check the departures and see what is going on."
"We got delayed another 30 minutes."
"Our gate just got moved to terminal A and we are now leaving two hours later."
"You don't have time for dinner, you need to be going to your gate right now!"
"Oh, you didn't hear? We are delayed until 9:00 PM."
"Hey, I just checked again and we aren't supposed to leave until 11:30 PM."
By 7:00 PM, there was a huge pile of college students laying in the hallway of the terminal eating airport food for the fifth time and using their carry-on back packs as pillows. We looked more like a pile of poor, sick, tired, haven't-showered-in-days ragamuffins. With sleepy eyes, unbrushed teeth, and uncombed hair, we were also wearing the same clothes that we had worn the past two days. Needless to say, every person that walked around our pathetic pile stared at our ridiculous (but hilarious) sight. We looked like we had lived in the airport for days, and we felt like it, too!
Each flight must have been delayed at least six times. By the end of the day, we had been in the airport for almost 36 hours.
In the middle of that madness, a thought occurred to me that I needed to express to the group. "You know," I got everyone's attention. "We have had such an amazing week in Nicaragua, that I think this is opposition. The enemy recognizes the joy of the Lord that we have, and he will do everything he can to try to stop it. Well, we are not going to let that happen!"
So instead of groaning and complaining the whole time, we decided to continue our mission trip with joyful and thankful spirits.
I told all this to the man beside me as I sat down on the small jet to Little Rock at 10:32 PM. "I have been waiting on this plane for four hours!" he announced with a hint of frustration in his voice that he did not hide very well. "Really? We have been here since 2:00 yesterday!" I said with the biggest smile on my face. The other passengers gasped, first because they felt so sorry for me and then because they thought I was crazy for being so happy about it. I continued, "We just got back from a mission trip to Nicaragua. It was so awesome that nothing can take away our joy! That is why I am still so happy." Many passengers turned around to mind their own business, but the man beside me seemed intrigued. I spent the rest of the flight telling him about our trip, our mission, and my own personal calling to missionary work. When our flight landed at 11:30, we bid a happy farewell.
Just in case we hadn't been through enough already, of course our luggage did not arrive. There was still another flight yet to land in Little Rock at 1:00 AM with four more Harding students on it. They also needed a ride back to school, so the three of us on my flight decided to wait just a little while longer for them and for our luggage. Only a few bags arrived at that time, so we loaded up my car with suitcases and people and headed back to Searcy.
At 3:30 AM, as I crawled into my bed, I could not stop smiling and laughing for several reasons. First, my bed felt so incredibly good. Second, let's be honest: those past two days had been hilarious. What should have taken nine hours took over forty-two. I kept thinking about that Chinese dinner at 1:00 AM and the pile of scraggly Harding students on the airport floor. That's pretty funny. And third, we had just experienced one amazing, Spirit-filled mission trip to Jinotega with a group of cool Harding students, inspiring missionaries, and amazing Nicaraguans.
There is nothing that can take away that joy.
That is because it comes from the Holy Spirit. Its source is beyond circumstance. No matter what happens, no matter how inconvenient, frustrating, or upsetting, the joy of the Lord cannot be snatched, stolen, or stifled. It is not swayed or shaken. This joy is a gift offered to all of us every day, and I testify that there is nothing as freeing as this gift of joy.
There is nothing that can take away that joy.
Unwrap this gift layer by layer. Reach deep into the package labeled from the Lord with your name on it. Inside, you will find the fruit of the Spirit of joy - not the happiness that the world offers, but the joy that finds its source in the deep unending well of God Himself. This well never runs dry, this God never changes, and this joy never fails. In fact, it is quite satisfying, delightful, and even contagious like a wild fire across dry plains.
May nothing take away our joy.
Ashli.
ReplyDeleteThank you soo much for writing all this down. I had do laught so hard when I read through it. So many memories are stored in these 42 hours of traveling. Thank you for showing us your passion for Nicaragua and all the people there. It was a great experience. Keep walking with the Lord and growing in HIM. I love you dearly!
Your Fajita stuffing friend ;)