What a Weekend!

The following recounts my experience last weekend while I was out traveling and speaking with Youth Specialties. I think some people believe this is a glamorous deal...this may affect your opinion....This is by far my longest entry, but I know you'll enjoy...

3/7/08 Wow! What a trip. I’m out on the YS tour and flew out of Indy into Memphis on North West Airlines and then into Columbia, SC. I had a great (small: only 30 people) turn-out for the seminar in Columbia & then got to the airport 3 hours early for my flight back to Memphis and on to Kansas City for a Saturday seminar of 300 people or so. The flight from Memphis was delayed because of a blizzard in Memphis, and they kept telling us it would be late – right up until the moment they cancelled the flight altogether. Only problem -- now it was too late to catch any other flights out and I still needed to be in Kansas City the next morning. I spoke with the emergency travel agency for YS & Zondervan, and after being on hold for 20 minutes, there was noting they could do for me either. So I called Carrie and we decided to cancel the city. I would fly home. But in the meantime, I decided to rent a car and drive home. I got my rental from Hertz, got direction and started out of the airport parking lot. That’s when Tic & Marko called from YS and said even if I arrived late, I should still go to Kansas City. They would contact folks to let them know. They found a flight on AirTran that would fly out of Atlanta and arrive the next morning at 9:15 a.m. They made arrangements for me to get picked up at the airport. I went back in to change my rental agreement and then started on the 3-hour drive from Columbia to Atlanta in a driving rainstorm. The entire drive was spent on the phone canceling hotels and rearranging other rentals. Oh – and I was also supposed to meet a candidate for our Executive Pastor Position at BridgeWay and have dinner with him and his wife in Kansas City. That fell through, too.

I eventually arrived in Atlanta around midnight, went to my hotel, and fell asleep. The alarms went of at 5:30 a.m. (I set 3 of them.) I got ready, hopped in my rental, drove to Hertz to drop it off and shuttled to the airport. Because I was purchased my ticket so late, I had to stand in line for my ticket and boarding pass, get extra screening trough security (Can you say “body cavity search”?) I arrived to my gate in Atlanta by 6:35 a.m. for my 8:05 a.m. flight. No sooner did I sit down and AirTran announced an hour-and-a-half delay on my fight due to a late inbound flight from Dayton, OH due to a blizzard up there. I panicked because I knew this wouldn’t put me into Kansas City until at least 10:30 a.m. for a seminar that was supposed to start at 9 a.m. that we had already moved o 10:00 a.m.

So I hustled over to the monitors to check on any other flights to Kansas City and found one on Delta at 7:48 a.m. I ran down to the Delta ticket counter and tried to buy a ticket for the flight that was in the same concourse as my AirTran flight, but they told me it was al booked up. So I called the YS Emergency Travel number and got a hold of an incredible woman who tried to help me through this and get me on that Delta flight. She purchased a ticket for me on a flight later in the day and I ran to Gate C-32 to get on the standby list for the 7:48 a.m. Delta flight. "Barry" was the Delta Gate Agent, and let’s just say that he was less than helpful. I was patient and polite and told him my situation. While he boarded the plane he told me to wait, so I did. Then he started calling standby passengers. I asked him to please put me on the list. He told me to wait. Finally, afer waiting some more, he quickly asked me for my ticket number – now keep in mind that I’ve been on the phone with YS Emergency travel this entire time, and this lady is literally purchasing my ticket for later in the day while I speak to the Delta Gate Agent. After I give him the number and think I’m getting on the 7:48 a.m. flight, he hands me a boarding pass for the 1:45 p.m. flight and says that’s the best he can do. I ask him if he still has seats on this flight, and he says yes, but because I can’t or didn’t pay a change fee, he won’t let me on the flight. Unreal!

So back I go down to the other end of the terminal to wait on my delayed AirTran flight and call Carrie to see what she wants me to do – Ouch! It’s 5 a.m. her time in California, but I had to do it. She tells me to call my YS host in Kansas City and let him know what’s going on. So I try, but his phone is off and the call goes right to voicemail. I try the number of the other guy who was supposed to pick me up at the airport in Kansas City, and it turns out to be a fax number….nice.

Anyway, I leave the host (Jamie) a few messages and go to get a new seat on the AirTran flight so I’m closer to the front and can get off as quickly as possible. it costs me $40, but I’m in 1st Class, Seat 1C. First off the plane! So I sit and wait for the AirTran flight. Finally our plane arrives, they board…and we’re running a few minutes late, (but at least we’re on the way). The pilot then comes one the speaker and announces that we’re going to be delayed 15 minutes to go through the de-icing procedure because, believe it or not, it’s snowing in Atlanta!

So eventually we go wheels up in Atlanta and now I’m flying into Kansas City with an estimated arrival time of 10:40 a.m., Kansas City time. Just before I boarded, the Kansas City host (Jamie) called to tell me he would keep people busy until I arrived, but that he was having trouble finding someone to pick me up at the airport! So here I sit – wondering who will pick me up, wondering why that Delta Gate Agent wouldn’t accommodate me, wondering why all this is happening, and wondering how in the world I’m going to do a 6 hour seminar in 4 hours – because my flight home tonight on NWA leaves Kansas City at 5 p.m. and transfers through Memphis, arriving in Indy at 9:30 p.m. where I’m supposed to meet Rolando Mendoza from CA at the airport because he’s flying into Indy at the same time for BridgeWay’s huge vision-casting service tomorrow and our Nicaragua mission trip meeting Sunday afternoon. “Lord, I have no idea why all this is happening or how you’re going to pull it all off, but I know it’s out of my control and that I totally need to depend on You.” That’s a good lesson for me to keep learning anyway…

As soon as I arrived in Kansas City, someone from YouthFront (where I was speaking) called to tell me that a taxi would be picking me up and driving me 35 minutes to the facility where I’d be speaking. The taxi driver called me, and when I walked out the door, he was there waiting. He was a muslim, and his name was Ibrahim Mohammad and we had a great conversation about life, faith, spirituality, and how politics, greed and power messed it all up.

Anyway, as soon as I arrived, I set up and started teaching. It was about 11:15 a.m. Jamie Roach (the host) did a great job with the people. He was doing a Lectio with the passage of Zaccheaus we were going to speak on, and I guess folds were really into it.

I flew through a good part of the day, shortened the breaks, did a working lunch, and even managed to sell a few books in the process. We were finished by 2:30 p.m. I met Mike King (KS YFL) and Christ Folmsbee (Sonlife—now YouthFront), took a few photos, packed up and met my same taxi drive to go back to the airport for my 5 p.m. NWA flight through Memphis and back home. (By the way, the round-trip cab ride cost $150 with the tip!)

When I got to the Kansas City airport, guess what? My flight was delayed 20 minutes! Ugh-not again! They reassured me it was not a problem. About an hour later, I got up and checked the monitors (must’ve been the Lord), only to see that my flight was now delayed more than an hour-and-a-half, and I would miss my flight connection in Memphis. So I went to the NWA counter, and they quickly rushed me down to American Airlines where I could fly to Dallas, connect to Indy, and be home by 11 p.m. Of course, the American flight to Dallas was running 45 minutes late, but I got on it anyway, and was on my way to Dallas. I thought about just driving home to Indy from Kansas City, but it’s an 8-hour drive. I was really exhausted at this point.

I also got a call from Rolando who said that his flights were 2 hours late! So who knows…this may all work out just fine and we may meet tonight in Indy anyway. I guess only God really knows.

I’m just so glad the people at my seminar were so gracious and stuck with me through it all. Jamie and his team really understand humility and servant-hood and for that, I’m very grateful.

www.justlife.tv

I've been working on a project with a friend of mine that I'm really excited about! It's not up and running quite yet, but we've got a weekly podcast going and we're anxiously waiting for September when the www.justlife.tv site will go live.

The website is a video driven website meant to help you take your spiritual conversations with friends to the next level. We'll be talking about addictions, ange, fear, jacked-up families, stress, suicide, self-esteem and more. We'll be talking from our heart - this won't be a slick, spiritual website. This will be about a bunch of ordinary people sharing their faith stories and how God has helped them through it all.

I hope you get a chance to check it out and use this tool to help you as you talk with yoru friends about the spiritual journey...

Down South

I flew out of Indianapolis this afternoon and arrived in Columbia, South Carolina early this evening. I'm here to present the CORE tomorrow. The CORE is a youth leader/parent/student leader training seminar. As soon as I got off the plane it felt good to be in the south! It was about 70 degrees with a soft breeze blowing. I stopped to eat a local Italian place called Stephanos - it was awesome. My body needed a rest like this. Sure it was a long day of travel, but it was great to get here and relax for awhile too. I'm anxious to see what God's going to do with this seminar I'm leading tomorrow. I'm just trying to follow His leading and obey what He wants me to do and it contineus to lead me into some very exciting opportunities. I never know what's around the next corner. That's an exciting way to live! Why not give it a try?