Moving Mountains

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything.   It has been a time of living in a new house, getting into a new routine and a time of searching as to what the Lord would have us do next.  But, before I continue with what is going on in our lives right now I know that I need to tell you about the Lord's goodness and faithfulness during our time in Zambia.

The first story (that I had promised to tell you) was about how the Lord allowed us to get there.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when we had to arrive at Heathrow airport 5 hours before our flight was due to leave because of a scheduling conflict with the mini bus that took us there, but the Lord was in the details and He knew it would take just about all of that time to sort out the issues we had.

The first issue was that there was a problem with Deanna's ticket, that alone took an hour or so to correct.  The kids were great during this time of waiting, most of them waited patiently until someone (I think it was Daniel) had the idea of using the waiting area as a race track with the small suitcases!!

We were excited when the ticket was sorted and we thought it would be easy going from there - we were wrong!!  As the lady was processing our tickets a notice came up on her computer screen asking if we had return flights or valid visas.  You see, we had purchased one way flights.  We thought we would be in Zambia for well over a year before going anywhere and because we were told we could get our visa in the country we didn't think it would be an issue.  A couple of weeks before we left England someone had raised the concern that we may not be able to get in on one way tickets, so I had called the Zambian High Commission, explained what we were going to Zambia to do and asked if one way tickets would be okay.  I was assured that we would be just fine and could get our visas once we were in the country.  Why should I doubt what the High Commission told me?

So anyway, here we were at the check-in counter with another problem the message on the computer screen said that we had to have return or onward tickets or a valid visa before British Airways would allow us on the plane.  The reason being is that the Zambian government had the right to fine British Airways $7500 (5,000 pounds) per person if they allowed someone to come to Zambia without the return flight or proper visa.  I explained to the lady that I had spoken to the High Commission and was assured we would be okay.  But British Airways wasn't going to budge on their policy for us - and we certainly understood why.  Allowing this family of 8 to fly could potentially bring them a $60,000 fine!

So what were we to do?  The lady recommended we purchase return flights that were fully refundable.  She called the ticket desk and found out the cheapest would be $3,000 (2,000 pounds) a person.  WHAT!!!  She suggested that we put it on a credit card until we got to Zambia then get the full refund.  One problem - we don't own a credit card.

Several years ago the Lord told us to get out of debt, we did and also got rid of our credit cards.  If we truly believe that He will provide for our needs then we don't need a credit card which would only tempt us to rely of credit instead of Him.

I have to admit that now I started to cry, then I prayed "Lord, you didn't bring us this far to have us turn around and go home.  I am looking to You to move the mountains that stand in our way.  Please Lord let me see a miracle here."

Gary stayed at the check-in desk with the kids while the lady to took me to the ticket counter to see if we could find any cheaper flights.

She explained to the ticket agent that were going to Zambia to help the orphans and that we needed the cheapest refundable onward ticket that she could find.  They started looking.  The cheapest they could find was a flight to Johannesburg, but that would still cost us $400 (250 pounds) each which would have been all the money we had to buy food and set up life in Zambia.  I asked them to look again to see if there were any other options.  After about 10 minutes of searching the ticket agent looked up at me and said very seriously "If you tell anyone that we have had this conversation I will deny it - I will say I have never met you before"  "Okay?" I replied.  Then she went on to inform me (very quietly) that all we needed to satisfy British Airways was an itinerary of a flight on which we would leave Zambia so she would print us off an itinerary and - here's the best part - it wouldn't cost us a penny!! Wow!!  My jaw dropped and I realized that God had just moved a mountain for us.


The two ladies left me to find a place where they could print the itinerary and I walked back to Gary and the kids with tears in my eyes.  When I reached Gary I told him that God had just done the impossible and informed him of what the ticket agent was planning to do for us.


We waited for about 20 minutes before the first lady came back to us.  She apologized for taking so long and told us that they had to find another code to use on the computer so what they did wouldn't be traced back to them.  Also, during the time they were working on the itinerary a manager came in and asked them if they were having trouble.  She jokingly replied to him "You have no idea!!" Thankfully he never looked at what they were doing otherwise their jobs could have been in jeopardy.


Five minutes later the ticket agent came back out to us and gave us the itinerary which showed we had onward flights to Johannesburg in the beginning of April.  She handed it to me and again emphasised that she had not done this for us or spoken to us before.  At times like that a simple 'thank you' did not seem enough but that was all I could give her.  Then she moved back to her desk.

Amazed at what the Lord had done, we then gathered ourselves together and moved on to the departure lounge.

We have had people say things to us like 'you should never have gone to Zambia', 'it couldn't have been His will because you had to come home' but we know that the Lord is in control of all things.  If He didn't want us in Zambia at that time He never would have moved the ticket agent's heart to print us an itinerary, or make the eyes of the manager blind to what they were doing.  God, only God is in control of all things and He wanted us in Zambia for that time, so He moved the mountains. 



Michelle