A college professor, his retired father, a young construction worker, a pastor and his wife made a commitment to work for a week in Santa Elena, Honduras at a foster home for young boys and girls. The trip to assist Mission on the Move Honduras was filled daily with service projects, VBS opportunities, preaching opportunities, and much more. Although going with the flow is the idea, they still had an itenerary for where their talents and abilities would best be utilized. Each of them raised a certain amount of funds to head on the trip, including, but not limited to, donations from friends, family and church. It was important to each of them to ensure that this trip was worth it to those who sponsored them to attend. The mission: to spread the gospel and show love to children who need it. After much preparation, packing, hugs, and kisses they set off early in the morning. The day finally came! It was time to go! They had their bags packed, passports, ministry supplies, and the all important flight tickets. All systems were go!

Seems like a great plan right? According to Robert Burns' poem, To a Mouse,  "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." That is exactly what happened at almost every turn; things went awry. Here is where I come in to tell you the story from my point of view. Arrival to the airport, parking, checking a bag, TSA, and waiting at the gate all went very smoothly. As always, there was some joshing around about someone's bag getting flagged. We all decided that it would probably be mine since I had a puppet stuffed in my bag. Maybe the googly eyes might look like a small child in my back pack. 

We boarded the plane on schedule, anxiously awaiting take off, and dreaming of what lied ahead. That is when the captain came on the speaker, thanking us for joining them and announcing a small issue a mechanic was working on as he spoke. Once it was resolved and the paperwork was processed we would be on our way to Miami. Estimated wait time was to be about 20-25 minutes. An hour later the pilot received the go ahead to head for the runway. Alright! We still had 2 hours for our layover which should be fine. A little less time for lunch than we hoped, but no big deal. As our plane hit the run way and began the acceleration up to speed for lift off it very quickly slowed back down, stopped and turned to head back to the gate. "Sorry folks. Another issue arose during take off. We are heading back to the gate. Expect to disembark and board another plane." Boo! We were slowly running out of time to catch our next flight. In all honesty, we would rather a malfunction happen on the ground than in the air. Either way God has this. We will be just fine.

We were de-boarded, traded gates, and boarded our next plane all within an hour and a half. Our layover time was dwindling before our eyes. We could still make it IF we hustled on the ground and in the air. Take off was a piece of cake this time, and all the passengers clapped as we did. So overjoyed was everyone to finally be on the way to Miami. Our pilots booked it to Miami, but we hovered over Miami waiting to land for quite awhile. Then, when we finally did land, we scooted so slowly to the gate. The driveways were all congested, and we were supposed to be there about 3 hours earlier. Trying to de-board was a nightmare. A good few of us had connecting flights. The attendants tried to get us off first, but some people just wanted off the plane. 

We jog/walked to our connecting gate in time to wave good bye as our plane drove away for take off. We missed the connection within 15 minutes. Now what do we do?

We spent an hour during our meal looking at other flights, boats, anything to get us down to Honduras on time versus two days later as promised by the airport. The boys left a really nice tip, a Jesus, and a prayer note for our server. We then headed off to our gate to see if we could make it on standby. The likelihood was slim, but God is not. Our hearts and minds were filled to the brim with a mix of hope and doubt, fear and resolve, faith and struggle. 

Will we be in Honduras tonight? 

As I was sitting at our potential gate, I was overwhelmed with exhaustion. Maybe I should take a nap. I laid on the floor of the airport with my blanket and neck pillow willing for sleep to overtake my weariness, but it did not come. I sat up and tried to read the novel I brought along with me. After a page and a half, I realized that I had no idea what I just read. Not because the text was difficult, but because my mind kept wandering away. Frustrated I put the book back in my bag, and went to purchase a coke. I knew that once we did get to Honduras I would not have direct access to this luxury and wanted to take the opportunity while I could. Coke in hand I headed back to our little camp site next to the gate, and I quickly noticed that it was filling up with people. 

The people I noticed looked like Hondurans, and I noticed a great deal of them were speaking Spanish to each other. As I sat people watching, my eyes gathered on a family close to us with a handful of little girls. They seemed a bit bored. I checked the time and noticed that we still had about 3 hours till the plane left. These poor kids were going to be waiting a while. That is when the Holy Spirit hit me hard, and I heard something inside me say...

Unfortunately, everyone was not leaving the terminal to go home, but moving to a new gate. So we packed up our belongings and headed to the new gate which I noticed was PACKED! I saw my new little friends near their mamma's in the corner, shyly waving at me from across the way. The plane was delayed again, so now the departure time was 9:37 p.m.. I was so worried; I desperately wanted a miracle to happen. Lord, please get us on this plane! Before our plane could land; however, another plane was boarding to travel to El Salvador. We noticed that another large group was collected outside the terminal all wearing matching shirts, and we were able to surmise that this group of teenagers was heading to El Salvador on a mission trip.