Newark – Protection

I had only around 36 hours left before boarding the plane to San Jose, Costa Rica.

I felt tired and I wanted to go to bed but I had this feeling inside me that first, I should say the travel prayers that we had received from our mentor to spiritually prepare the way, to “make the crooked places straight” etc. I obeyed and went to sleep

Contact me Immediately

“Can you please contact me immediately…” I was slowly waking up…

What’s going on? It looked pretty urgent… I had exactly the same message posted in 4 different places: on my skype, on facebook wall, on facebook message and in the email.

When I reached out to the personal assistant of the CEO who left me these messages, she immediately said: “you are flying to the wrong San Jose…”

“What do you mean?” I asked. There was around 24h left for the plane to take off…

She said, “according to your current ticket you will be landing in San Jose California, SJC airport instead of San Jose Costa Rica SJO airport….”

Then she added, “it was lucky I checked your ticket, I normally do not do it, somehow I did it for you last night, we got to change your ticket”…

It was not luck.

I got on a call with an agency that booked the ticket and within half an hour:

1. 1. They fully refunded the entire ticket without any penalty even though the flight was in about 24h

1. They booked a brand new return ticket at a lower price than previously one-way ticket would cos

What Could Be the Potential Cost?

If Susan did not check my ticket, there were some potential pretty serious consequences…

• • I could have landed in San Jose California so I would lose money for the ticket – as I would have to pay the second leg myself

• • I would have lost the fee for a day of training as I would arrive at best a day later
  • I would have lost reputation

I did not pay any of the prices, I did not lose any money nor time and I walked away untouched from the experience. Was it coincident? or the prayers were working?

James 5:16 “…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

5 Days of the Group Mentoring

I made it on time, it took me 24 hours from door to door. The plane was full, I barely manage to sleep.

The 5 days of the group mentoring were very intense. I was waking up at 5 am every day to start my day with an hour of power then swim. After that, I had a quick breakfast and we often started our mentoring at 7 am. We finish the training often as late as 11 pm because we stayed behind after the seminar to help out students.

Even though I slept 4-5 hours a day, my body was exhausted but the trip was amazing, we helped loads of people to kick-start their businesses. I love what I do.

My return flight was leaving San Jose at 6 am so I needed to wake up at 2 am. I barely slept that night.

At the San Jose airport, I found a souvenir shop that was playing worship music in Spanish, that was pretty cool.

Newark Airport

I boarded the plane and 7h later I landed in Newark, NY. I had a short 3 hours layover there, the time was passing very fast. I had some food, walked around the airport, got some gifts and went to the waiting lounge where I charged my phone. My eyes were closing, I was exhausted.

Finally, the stewardesses called everyone to start boarding. People started queuing up. I did not rush. I always like to stay till the end as I do not like to wait for too long in the lines.

I waited a bit longer and when around two-third of the people boarded, I unplugged my phone, stood up, put my backpack on and started walking to board the plane.

Then, suddenly the wave of heat went through my body….

Where is My Suitcase?

Where is my suitcase? I had a hand luggage… it was nowhere to be found…

The line of final people to the board was becoming shorter and shorter. I had at most 5-10 minutes left and I had no idea where I left my suitcase…

Did I leave it at the food place? Did I leave it at the souvenir shop? Did I leave it when I sat down and spoke to my brother? All these questions were racing through my head.

Do I have enough time to look for it or maybe I should let go of it since the suitcase had only clothes? I had all my electronics and expensive items in my backpack. My tired brain was running different scenarios while the clock was ticking.

My body was exhausted but the shot of sudden adrenaline made me really awake. I had no idea which way to go, I started running in one direction trying to get lucky, but the Newark airport is huge. It has multiple corridors intersecting. It seemed pointless as I had visited so many places over the past 3 hours.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Then I remembered that I should ask to receive. John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

So I asked for help, “Holy Spirit which way shall I go? Where did I leave the suitcase”

Then suddenly, I got number huge “72” popping up in my mind. It must be the gate number.

I run as fast as I could when I reached it, I realized it was exactly opposite the souvenir shop I had visited.

I walked inside, trying to catch my breath, but the shop assistant looked at me said, “your suitcase has been given to “Lost and Found” and it’s two floors down”. The clock was ticking without mercy, 3-5 minutes had already passed since I left the boarding lounge.

The question is “do I have time to go two floors down and look for the suitcase or shall I just let go of it?  Buying a new ticket from NY to London would be more expensive than the value of the suitcase.

So, I asked again, and the peace entered my heart.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15

I decided to run looking for “lost and found”. I was wearing flip flops, it was really hard to run. It did not work, I was running like a duck so I took them off and started running bare feet. I needed to be fast and I needed to do whatever it took.

That Scared Me…

My mind was racing, the clock was ticking, I run as fast as I could. When I went a floor down I realised something scary… I had just stepped outside of the security… In order to renter, I would have to stand in the line. I look to the side, there was a line of around 400 people… I moved on in faith.

Completely out of breath I finally got to the “Lost and Found”.

One of the ladies said they got my suitcase around an hour ago. She went inside one of the rooms looking for it. It took around a minute, but it was the longest minute ever. The clock was ticking. It was at least 10 min since I left the waiting lounge. Everyone must have boarded.

Finally, the lady came out of the room, brought my suitcase. I grabbed it, I thanked and immediately started to run back up. I was praying in tongues all the way and I asked: “Lord please hold the plane”.

I went flying through all the stairs and escalators to reach the security line. There was a huge line of people. I was completely out of breath, my heart was racing. I found a security officer and I said “brother, I need your help, I need to go fast, my plane is leaving now”

He looked at me, took a moment and said, “ok, go this way”.  

There was a VIP line that allowed me to cut the entire line all the way to the security scanners. That’s where I got stuck. I tried again to talk my way out of it, but this time there was very little I could do as people had already put their belonging to the boxes and on the conveyor belt. I needed to wait the next few precious minutes. Again it felt like an eternity. It was already at least 15 min since I left the waiting lounge. I prayed they would not close the gate.

New Record Established

I passed the scanners, I took my luggage and run as fast as I could. Finally, I reached the gate…barefoot, out of breath, probably pale…but… hey…  It was still opened, they let me in…

I walked to my seat trying to come down my body, I was completely exhausted, out of breath. I drunk loads of water and closed my eyes and said thank you.

A few minutes later, we could hear the captain’s voice: “Thank you very much for the amazing boarding, we probably broke the record, you boarded really fast, however, we will have to wait here for another 20 minutes before we can take off…”

My body was slowing down and suddenly amazing gratitude started flooding my body.

I reflected back, this trip was at least wired.

There were so many things that nearly went wrong.

There were so many ways I could have lost money (two tickets, San Jose to San Jose, and New York to London, a day of training fee, suitcase, clothes).

There were so many ways I could have lost time (day of mentoring and probably half a day coming back from New York to London)

I could have lost reputation, the list is quite long. But hey, I did not lose anything. I was protected. All the glory goes to God. 

How about you? What’s your story of divine protection? Or what’s a moment in your life where you wish you would have that protection?

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

Psalm 5:11