PERU, MEXICO, LONG BEACH JANUARY 2009 DAY 1

Friday, January 16

Not the most auspicious beginning to my first trip to Latin America! I was picked up the earliest hour of all time: 3:45am. Dave Detter got me to SFO before 5:00 for my 6:00 flight to Miami. Except the flight was delayed by equipment problems (something with the steering of the front wheels) and, frankly, some botched calls about when to requisition another aircraft. We eventually took over the airplane that was leaving for Hawaii later in the morning, so all the flight attendants had pineapple pins on their jackets, and one of the morning entrees was Macadamia Nut pancakes. Ha! Finally, at 9:10am we flew east.

The “plenty-of-time” layover in Miami (2½ hrs.) grew shorter by the minute as we sat on the tarmac in San Francisco. By the time the plane arrived in Miami, my flight to Lima had been gone for an hour. While still at SFO I alerted Lindsay to the situation, and she informed our own Carol Mann who worked wonders with the airline, and had me booked on the later flight from Miami to Lima, leaving at 11:30pm. Good job Carol and Lindsay!!

Ah, but that meant five hours at Miami International (MIA); I felt like it, too—missing in action. The good news is that I have adopted a go-a-day-or-two-early philosophy of travel in my old age. I used to fly with just enough time to get me somewhere for an event. Now I try to leave a day or two early, so I can get acclimated to time changes and occasional travel snags like this one. The late night flight to Lima will put me there at 5:10am. That’s a terrible time for poor Fabio Padilla (the National Leader of Foursquare Peru) to pick me up, but at least we’ll still get to take a tour of Lima that his wife suggested for our Saturday.

The man next to me on the plane seemed very agitated for the hours on the ground and in the first hour or so of the flight. He bristled with a seething frustration (anger) that was looking for a partner-in-complaint. At first, I simply ignored his fishing techniques that were trying to draw me into his emotional state. He wanted to vent, and it’s maddening for a prospective ventor/ventee not to have an audience/partner. My studied silence/deflection seemed to calm him down a bit but after I prayed (gee, why didn’t I think about that sooner), he really calmed down and became almost pleasant.

The world around us really is so spiritual, and if we could “see” with spiritual eyes, we would be aware of ‘air’ currents, atmospheres, zones and stirrings too easily missed to the natural senses. People and powers emanate attitudes, influences and activities in the unseen dimension. When they brush up against us—or knock us down—we’re always surprised, aren’t we? The Bible doesn’t give us a precise delineation among the invisible forces that intersect the natural arena, and I do not want to paint a picture that exaggerates the currents and movements in the spiritual realm. But it’s so easy to forget the true arena of our earthly conflicts.

My airplane interruption was a great counter-point to the amazingly spiritual (miraculous, i.e., beyond a natural and physical explanation) interception I’ve experienced these last two weekends at KWAM in LA and at the Young Leaders Retreat in Alexandria, VA. I’m still thinking back on the way that God manifested His love and power in the young adult’s lives those days. Prophetic words and insights punched right through the cynicism and unbelief some of the delegates had about God’s active interest in them and their circumstances. So many of them had personal encounters with God, and that is the ultimate hope for any of us who organized and led those events.

Good leaders do not try to create something, as much as they try to arrange opportunities for people to be open to what God wants to do for them. We cannot fabricate His work; we cannot produce an experience or a program that can even come close to doing what God, alone, can do. That is good counsel for myself as I go to Peru. All of my diligence and hard-work instincts urge me to be “prepared” for the days ahead. But sometimes I fall prey to striving for a “preparation” that plans/programs God out of the picture! I want to be so “ready” that I leave little room for God to take over the event/teaching.

What a delicate balance: “studying to show myself approved as a good workman” on the one hand, and “stand by and see the salvation of God” on the other…

I’ll be in Peru, doing their National Convention, until late next Thursday night when I’ll fly all night (and much of the following day) to San Luis Potosi, Mexico via Miami and Dallas. I’m speaking at a young leaders training seminar and church. On Monday, January 26, I fly to Long Beach for a meeting of all Supervisors and Superintendents to discuss District Consolidation. Even though there will be long meetings—that’s when I hope to catch up on my emails and phone calls from my friends (it’s very easy to step out of meetings I’m not leading, and take or return a call). Many of the guys do their emails right in the meeting itself!

Since I’m not certain about my email access in Peru, I’m not sure how steadily I will send journal entries. So, if nothing else, get back to me after January 26 to hear all about my first trip to Latin America—and some upcoming trips back East and to Europe.