God Did Answer!

Glancing surreptitiously at my watch, my heart sank.

Colleagues were waiting in the airport to whisk me away to my first speaking appointment—wherever that was. Over twenty hours in the air; only one in the customs office. (It felt like twenty!) Once in the airport, I had been pulled aside.

The encounter went like this: Officer 1: “Where are you staying in our country?” Me: “The hosts have made hotel reservations for me.” He asked me where. Me: “I don’t know, sir. The hosts made all the arrangements.” Officer 1: “Do you have an invitation with you?” I showed him an email. Officer 1: “That’s not a formal invitation. Where are you speaking?” I told him at an annual medical convention, for one. Officer 1: “Where is it going to be held?” Me: “At the annual medical convention. I think at a resort about three hours from here.” Officer 1: “You think? Aren’t you staying there? What’s the name of the resort?” Me: “I don’t know.” (It was not on the email.) A second officer and then a third went through identical questions. Sadly, the same answers. In the fourth office, a woman shook her head and said, “We allow no one to enter our country without a local address.” Dear God, I breathed. I have no address. I’m out of ideas. I’m exhausted and about to take another flight—back home. If You want me to speak here, please help! “Is there anywhere else you are scheduled to speak?” she asked. “Yes,” I heard myself reply. “I’m presenting an all-day seminar at Fulton College.” “Fulton College!” she exclaimed.

“We know that college. It has an excellent reputation. Several of our officers attended there. Why didn’t you say so to begin with?” (If I had known . . .) Stamp, stamp, stamp. Passport in hand, I was in the lobby. “Where have you been?” the leader exclaimed.

“We thought you’d missed the plane!” “No worries,” I said.

“I was having a prayer answered.”