Missionary Miracles

 On Tuesday Logan departed for his mission.  We took him to the airport and after a mostly stress-free check in saw him safely through security.  Because his plane was due to board in ten minutes, Josh and I headed home (also, it was 5:00am and it seemed pointless to sit around where we couldn't even see him).

The great thing about the internet is that you can find out things like where someone's plane is at any given moment.  After a few hours I decided to check and see if he was about to land in Denver.  What I found was that he was JUST TAKING OFF from Medford.  The poor kid had been sitting at the airport for 2.5 hours waiting for a flight!  And of course that throws off his entire itinerary which was tight already.  Knowing he doesn't have a phone didn't help me feel calm!  He did have the number for the missionary travel department which he was told to call if there were any travel issues.  So all we could do was wait for him to wing his way to Denver and hope he figured it out.  That right there is the bad side of the internet - knowing when something is wrong and there's nothing you can do to fix it.  We did call the airline and we called missionary travel but everyone basically said there was nothing they could do until he called them.  So we waited.  And I was a basket-case.  I said a prayer and reminded myself that Logan is on the Lord's errand and He will watch over him.

Miracle #1 

I went to get a haircut and as I was scheduling my next visit I stopped and looked at my schedule for today and noticed it said "flight DEN to MFR" which after a double-take realized that was Brynne's flight home today.  It was like a neon sign in my head - BRYNNE WILL BE PASSING THROUGH DENVER TODAY.  I hurriedly texted her that Logan was in Denver and she should keep her eyes open when she passed through.  With time changes I couldn't tell when that would be.  She called me ASAP and said she had just landed there.  I told her what I knew and gave her some suggestions on where to look for her brother - including maybe paging him.  So the first miracle is that google puts dates in your calendar for you.  I had no idea what Brynne's itinerary would be, but google grabbed it from the email she sent me and put it in.   Thank you, Lord, for calendars.  The miracle that I saw her flight just as she was landing and was able to connect with her already helped me to feel better.

Miracle #2

Brynne went to the gate I thought Logan might be at, B1, but it was a misunderstanding.  An agent told her he actually landed at B95.  So totally sobbing in worry for him, she started running down the terminal to the other end hoping to catch him.  As she was running she suddenly had a thought to stop at a gate and ask a quick question.  She saw a desk where the agent wasn't busy so stopped running.  As she approached the gate desk THERE WAS LOGAN about to board a flight.  If she hadn't stopped right then she would have totally missed him - he was on the plane 10 minutes later.  I can't tell you how happy it made me to have these photos suddenly appear on my phone less than 10 minutes after Brynne and I hung up and she went racing off to find him.  They haven't seen each other in over a week so they got to say one last quick good-bye.

Plus, what are the odds that they would be in Denver at the same time - if Logan's flight hadn't left late that would never have happened.  So crazy!

Later that afternoon not having heard any updates since Brynne's, we called the Church's travel department and were finally informed that he got rerouted via Houston.  The Church knew where he was and had a new itinerary for him.  A much longer day than anticipated!  He borrowed the phone of his seat mate on the plane and called before he left Denver, which I am so glad he did.

At 8pm PDT (so 11pm in Atlanta) Logan called me again to let me know he'd made it to Atlanta.  I gave him the numbers he asked for and went to bed.  Right before going to bed I checked my email and we had received an "urgent" and slightly panicked sounding email from his mission president saying "all the other missionaries arrived but there was no Elder Richardson.  Do you know what happened?"  I told him all I knew was that he'd had multiple delays and had a new itinerary but I didn't know what it was.  My guess was that he would be spending the night in Atlanta.

When I woke up I had an email from President Lozano saying the mission travel department had rebooked him for the next day's flight to Bogota, and gotten him a room at a hotel for the night.  

Blessing: I also had a text from Julia saying that she was on her way to get my son for the day so he could be out of an airport for a bit and spend some time with friendly faces.  What a sweet tender mercy that Ju is in Atlanta, GA for a few months and only 30 minutes away from the airport.

Logan told me every single one of his flights was delayed and he'd had to be rebooked.  I think it was a little frustrating for him!

The thought that was running through my mind all day long is that Logan is just as much (more!) the Lord's son and he is on the errand of the Lord and will be in His hands.  And it's so true.  I was never worried about his safety.  I had packed lots of food and he had a debit card so he could take care of any needs he had.  I just worried about his state of mind and if he was worried or stressed or lonely.  So what blessings for him to be able to see Brynne and then good friends on his journey.   Brynne's miracle in particular was definitely the Lord's tender mercy to both of them.  It should not have happened that she could find him in a terminal filled with hundreds of people and almost 100 gates and no idea which one he would be at.  But she walked right up to the very one where he was just five minutes before he was boarding.  Truly, truly miraculous.

God loves us.  I know He watches over His children and he cares about even the little things like a stressed out mama who needs to know that her boy is okay.  Plus it's just good to know that he can take care of his business.  He's going to be just fine in Columbia!