My flight was to leave at 5:45, but fortunately the Oakland airport was only a 25 minute drive from my house, all on city streets. That meant I'd have to leave for the airport at 4:15 AM. I prepared everything (my suitcase, my tickets, my airplane snacks) the night before, so I set my alarm for 4:00 AM and went to bed.
By husband woke me before the alarm went off. He asked me, "Teresa, what time did you need to leave for the airport? Was it 4:30 AM or 5:30 AM?"
I said, "4:30."
He said, "Well, it is currently 4:40. Maybe you should get up."
Even though the alarm was set and turned on, it had not gone off. I had a sense that the devil did not want me to go on this trip. My first thought was concern that I'd not make it to the airport in time and I'd miss this trip that God had gone out of His way to arrange for me. Then God spoke to me. He said, "Teresa, don't be afraid, I will take care of you. You will find that there is enemy resistance and some difficulties on this trip, but if you trust Me, I will take care of them all."
I don't know how we did it, but we popped out of bed at 4:40 and we pulled out of the driveway at 4:45. The Lord arranged traffic so that every single light we came to was green. We made it to the airport in 15 minutes, right at 5:00 AM. The airline had printed on the ticket that luggage check in must be completed at least 50 minutes prior to departure, so even though we left half an hour late, I had 5 minutes to spare. I was able to get to the airline counter, where there was no line and complete my check in in those 5 minutes. Wow.
I had two flights, and both of them were very pleasant. It felt like the Lord's blessing and favor was on me, because total strangers went out of their way to be nice to me and to do nice little things for me. I thought to myself, "I guess I must have heard wrong when I thought the Lord told me that there would be difficulties on this trip."
But that all changed when I arrived Tampa. I was using a wheelchair because of my ankle problem. I had just gotten my foot out of a cast two days before, and the doctor had made me promise I'd use the wheel chair instead of doing all that walking at the airport. (It was either make that promise or remain in the cast.) When we landed in Tampa, they put me in the wheel chair and rolled me about 15 feet off of the ramp to the gate seating area. Then they left me there, telling me they'd be back soon, but they weren't. After waiting about 1/2 hour, I finally got up out of the wheel chair and started walking carefully towards the baggage claim area. My ankle was sore from the travel, but I figured I could walk. I came to this giant escalator that went down a long ways (probably two stories).
I stepped on to it, and about half way down, the escalator stopped. All the other people behind me passed me and walked down the escalator. But stairs were really difficult for me, I was holding my carry on bag (which goes over the shoulder) and a laptop case, which is sort of like a briefcase. I could not use my arms to support my weight against the rail because my arms were full of my carry on luggage. I couldn't go down and I could not go up. I was stuck and I did not know what to do. Some people called out to me to ask me if I'm ok, and I told them I can't walk stairs, so I was stuck. They said they'd tell someone. It took about twenty minutes before anyone arrived, and I felt very stupid standing there on the broken escalator.
"What about now?" the Lord asked. "Does it still seem like maybe you misheard me about having some difficulties on this trip?"
"Not at the moment."
"Well, don't fret, I am going to take really good care of you."
It did not feel like it at that moment, but I decided that I had two choices. I could relax, trust God, and rest in His peace. Or I could freak out. I decided on the first. When help arrived, it was the escalator repair crew. They told me that they can't restart the escalator until after I walk down it and get off it. I told them that I could not walk down it because I was just out of a cast for an ankle problem and could not walk down stairs. They said they'd call the fire department to evacuate me from the escalator and I thought to myself, "Good grief, this is getting way out of proportion." We finally worked out a compromise where they held my stuff and I used both of my hands to support my weight against the rail, and I slowly worked my way down the long escalator
At the bottom, they told me that if I wanted to get a wheelchair, I'd have to hire a porter to find someone to bring me one. I decided that since I'd walked that far, I would walk the rest of the way. When I got to the baggage claim, my suitcase was still on the cart, but another flight was unloading. Every time my case came around, someone would push in front of me and block me from getting it. I had to let the suitcase go around go around four times before i could finally get it.
From there it was a short walk to the rental car office, but the lines were really long. It took close to another hour before I had my car. Well, I did not really have the car yet, I had the package that I took to the garage to pick up the car. When I got there, the guy gave me keys to a car and told me what spot it was in. There was a problem with my car. It was so muddy that I could not even see out of the windows. I told the attendant that this car was filthy and that I wanted a different one, a clean one. He told me it was clean on the inside, and the mud would wash off of the car when it rained, so I should not complain. I told him I wouldn't take a car that was with windshields so dirty that I could not see out of them to drive. He said, "You're obviously not from Florida," but he grudgingly washed the windows for me.
Then I pulled of the airport and right into rush hour traffic. My flight had landed at 3:30 but now it was 5:45. It took over half an hour to go less than ten miles and it was now 6:15 and I still had over a half-hour drive before me. I was surprised that I did not feel frustrated and anxious. I had hoped to get to the meeting before 6:00, so I could get my pastor's wristband (which let you in a bit earlier to get a closer seat). That was obviously not going to be possible. Also, slow traffic usually makes me really anxious. But I found myself full of His peace, singing worship songs and talking to the Lord.
It was almost 7:00 PM when I finally got to the hotel. They gave me a room and I decided to bring my stuff up from the car before going to the evening meeting. It turned out the air conditioner in my room was broken, so they had to switch me to another room. It was after 7:30 by the time all that was done. They told me it was about a 20 minute drive to airport where the revival meetings were. I figured that if I skipped dinner and left right away, I could still make at least half an hour of the worship (which I had been told usually went for about 1.5 hours).
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR AWAY
When I checked in, the hotel clerk had given me a photocopy of hand-written directions to the meeting. I got in the car and followed them--only to discover they were wrong. They took me to the airport's departure terminals, not to the meetings. A friend had lent me her guidance system. So I finally plugged it in used it to find the meeting, but it took me on a 15 mile detour. It was 8:30 PM by the time I finally pulled into the parking lot. (I parked in the handicapped lot since I had a temporary handicapped placard from my ankle injury).
I got out of the car and turned to reach back in and get my stuff--my purse, car keys and bible. I am not sure why, but I had my cell phone in my hand when I got out of the car. The ground was uneven, and the door fell closed. To my shock and dismay, the car had locked itself. I had never heard of "auto-lock" before, but apparently the rental car had that feature. I felt so helpless. My keys and purse (with $500 cash in it) were sitting on the passenger seat. I couldn't even call the rental car company because the paperwork with the emergency phone number was locked in the glove compartment. And to make matters worse, it started to rain (a thunderstorm) just seconds after I got out of the car.
Talk about difficulties getting to the meeting! I guess the devil really did not want me to go because he was working so hard to keep me from getting there.
I glanced over at the entrance to the tent, which was about 1.5 blocks away. I thought about just going in and then trying to deal with the key problem after it was over. But I had $500 cash in my purse and I had elected not to take insurance on the rental car. Besides, the chances of getting help at 8:30 PM were much better than getting some type of service after midnight. I decided that I had to stay with the car until I got the problem resolved.
I thought to myself, "So close and so far away..."
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