WRONG WAITING ROOM
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears
are attentive to prayers." I Peter 1:12a

      The following incident at Beijing Airport was, by far the most frightening experience that happened to me during my first trip to China.

      Our team had arrived at the Beijing airport somewhat early and had gone into the designated waiting room for our particular flight.  We had plenty of time to leisurely take pictures and look around the airport.  I sat watching our luggage while my teammates browsed around the circular building housing various waiting rooms on the upper level.

      One of the girls returned to the waiting room and reported that there was a nice clean restroom downstairs.  Since it was nearing flight time, I decided to go down to the restroom.  Upon my return, I went into the designated waiting room for our flight to Gaungzhow.  To my dismay, none of my teammates were in there.  The room was empty.  Gripped with fear, I ran out to the information desk and asked, "Has our plane left?  My teammates are not in the waiting room."  The Chinese girl at the desk looked at me blankly and mumbled something, which I could not understand.  At that moment I wished I had learned to speak some basic Chinese.

      I circled the entire lobby---twice.  I looked in every waiting room, but could not find my friends.  My heart was pounding as I ran back to our designated waiting room.  This time there was a Chinese man standing by the window.  In desperation, I showed him my boarding pass, whereupon he showed me his.  They were the same.  That's when panic really set in.

      I cried out, "Oh Lord!  Where are my teammates?  Did they leave without me?  I am all alone in China."  Never in my life had I ever gone anywhere all by myself.  I thought I would die of fright:  and who would know what happened to me in this foreign land.

      As I made my way to a bench, wild thoughts ran through my mind, and my stomach was churning.  I sat down on the wooden bench, trembling in fear, wondering what would happen to me since I could not even communicate with anyone.  Just then I recalled the dream I had shortly before I left for China, and how I had called out to Jesus for help.

      I began praying, "Oh God, the dream has come true.  I am lost and all alone.  how could this happen?  You know how scared I am.  Please help me."  I continued praying for what seemed like hours when suddenly I spotted one of my teammates walking across the lobby.  I ran out, calling, "Gregg, where has everyone gone?"

      He said, "We're in the waiting room.  Where have your been?"  As I looked at all my teammates sitting in a row chatting, I said, "This is the wrong room."

      It dawned on me that the electronic sign had changed after we had gone in that room.  When I had returned form the restroom, I went into the right waiting room.  Hurriedly, everyone gathered their luggage and we proceeded to the right room just in time to board our plane.

      Then I realized that the Lord had hidden my friends from my sight when I had searched for them, knowing I would have just gone in and sat down with them.

      My partner Karen said, and everyone agreed, "God used you to bring us into the right waiting room so we would not miss our flight to Canton."

      Long after we were in flight, I was still trembling, and prayed, "Thank You, God, for looking after us.  But Lord, it was downright scary back there!  You know how fearful I am!  Why didn't you use some brave person instead of me?"

      I guess it's not necessary to be brave or smart to be used by God, just available.  One thing I learned through this experience; God can be trusted to hear our prayers and answer them.  Now, if I can just learn to call upon the Lord before I hit the panic button--that will be a giant step forward!