When are interruptions divine?  Last night as Marilyn Meberg, Luci Swindoll, Lisa Whelchel and I were making a quick connection in the Nairobi, Kenya airport, we hit a major roadblock which might have been a disaster but instead became a huge blessing in disguise.

We’re in Africa on a trip to see the work of World Vision. Our partnership with them to protect and provide for children all over the world is one of the highlights of our organization. Women in North America have sponsored hundreds of thousands of children in the past ten years through World Vision.

I’ve been to Africa several times and have learned (the hard way) that when one’s plane lands in Nairobi, it’s better to not leave the airport without expert escorts,  Last night we were only going to be in the airport a couple of hours before connecting with Kenya Air for a quick flight to Kigali Rwanda.  We arrived about 10 pm and in no time realized we’d missed our connection.  Uh-Oh.

We were madly trying to decide what to do.  Marilyn and I ran down to retrieve our luggage, finding an agent on the way we could nab by the collar to help us. Once the luggage was in tow, I left Marilyn to babysit the agent and the bags and ran to tell Luci and Lisa to sit tight until they heard from me. And I started trying to figure out what to do. We’d missed the last flight out and had no plan in place. 

I decided to climb 5 flights of stairs to the British Airways Executive Club. Since we’d flown in on BA, maybe they’d have an idea of what we should do.  A young man (twenty-ish) named Sospeter was at the counter and was compassionate about my problem. He said if I’d give him a few minutes, he’d help me.  Whew!  So I ran first to Marilyn, then Luci and Lisa with my report.

Then I got in the very long line at Kenya Air to secure our tickets for today.  While I was working on that, Sospeter came to say he was ready to help. I, however, was tied up with the Kenya Air agent.  So I asked if he could sit with Marilyn and wait for me a minute.

By now it was almost midnight and only a few people were left in the entire airport. None of us were scared, but I have a feeling we should have been. We had nowhere to go, no idea of what to do, no Kenyan currency, no visa, and no place to spend the night. A perfect storm.

Then the amazing happened.  Marilyn struck up a conversation with Sospeter (of course!).  He asked her why we were traveling and she said to do some work with World Vision, an international humanitarian relief organization.  He said, “World Vision?  You saved my life.” 

Huh?  As his story unfolded, we learned both his parents had died of AIDS.  He and his two siblings were left alone with nothing.  World Vision found them and they became sponsored children.  They went to school, had a place to stay where they could be together, received an education and ultimately found meaningful employment. An amazing, articulate, kindhearted young man was being helpful to us because someone had been helpful to him.  Our paths crossed in God’s divine timing and in a way that we might see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears the miracles of the World Vision strategy.

Finally, I got our tickets arranged, and Sospeter pulled together some friends who took us to a very nice hotel where we spent last night―and he escorted us there.  This morning, a couple hours before we left, they came back to the hotel to take us to catch our flight.

Because he works at the airport, Sospeter had credentials that enabled him to walk us through security, customs and immigration and to our gate. At our gate, we tried to slip cash into his hand to express our gratitude. He refused,  We insisted. He refused. He was exceedingly kind and grateful. With tears in his eyes, he said, “You have saved my whole life. I was able to survive, get an education, stay with my family, and get a job that I could never have had. I have a life because of how God used you. I will take no pay from you. It is my desire to say thank you to you in this way. I was in need and God used you to give me the world. I want to give back.”
Lisa prayed for him as we stood in a circle in the middle of the Nairobi airport and we all cried tears of great joy. 

If God had given us our desire, we would have missed it all.  But our plans failed so His could be achieved. 

Mary

P.S. At one point he looked at Lisa Whelchel and said, “Have I not seen you on TV? I know those eyes.”