God's Sufficient Grace

Back in Bangkok

Once again I have felt strongly the prayers of others on my behalf - especially regarding the return flight to Bangkok and God giving grace in leaving home yet again. I (and all my luggage) not only arrived safely and on time last night, but God granted a few special gifts along the way. The first was an unusually under-booked flight for the 13 hour, Chicago to Tokyo leg of the trip. I was sitting in the middle aisle and there were 3 empty seats between me and the man at the end of the row. I stretched out on two of them, he on three, and I was able to sit and sleep relatively comfortably during that flight. What a blessing! However, upon arriving in Tokyo, I was mentally and physically "through" with traveling and had no idea how I was going to make it through the next 3 hours of layover and 6 hour flight (this trip seemed longer and more boring/lonely than past flights). God knew how I felt and gave me a big surprise in Tokyo! As I was exiting one airplane, I saw Emily, a friend and teacher at ICS, ahead of me - apparently she had been on the same flight and I didn't know it! I caught up with her while she was looking up a flight of our other friend, Jen, who was supposed to be flying out of Tokyo at the same time we were. We went to the other concourse in search of Jen and ended up running into 2 other ICS teachers! How fun it was to see all of them and catch up briefly - not to mention it made the layover "fly" by (pun intended!). The 3 other girls where on one Tokyo-Bangkok flight and Emily and I were on another. Although I was not seated beside her, it was nice to have someone to travel with and when we arrived in Bangkok 6 hours later, another teacher was there to pick her up (which she had arranged previously), so I was able to also ride with them back to my apartment, instead of traveling by taxi alone. Seeing familiar faces was a blessing for all of us, I think, as we were all a bit emotional about leaving home. I continued to be amazed at the Lord knowing and meeting even my smallest needs.

Please continue praying for me in the upcoming weeks, though. I told Carol Wilkening a few weeks ago that I've discovered that I am typically happiest wherever I am, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for obvious reasons, but a curse because it makes leaving that place of happiness very painful. The weeks before leaving a place (especially home) are usually filled with dread, panic and tears (which I experienced off and on the last few weeks) and the weeks following in the new place are also very hard and emotional as I adjust and the "felt" separation is very real. God has given me so many gifts in Bangkok, I know I'll grow to be content here once again in a few weeks or months, it's just this in between time that's so hard. Thank you for lifting me up before the Father!

posted by Catherine Rogers @ 11:24 PM