Taking Time to be Thankful...

My husband, who works for the organization called Food the Hungry, (www.fh.org) takes these by-yearly trips to Mozambique, Africa.  He is the translator and one of the Bible Institute teacher to 200 African Pastors (or more) the trip usually takes three day, two nights and the one day’s trek to the bush country. The last couple of trips he has been able to communicate via texting/e-mail so I sent him on his way without any worries because I knew he could touch base.  He always calls when he arrives to the field of service and always calls when he is on his way back home.  This time however, he didn’t.

I was fine for the first 24 hours then as one day turned into three I became considerable worried.  No word at all through any avenue of communication.  So I began to call around, everyone I asked that could promised to call as soon as they heard anything at all good or bad.

So my mind started imagining the worse and preparing for it. I love the film called, Blood Diamond, so that came to mind in my despairing thoughts. I pictured him taken captive by that scenario. The show, Lost, played havoc with my thoughts one whole night as I tried to sleep, I didn’t want to watch the news because it can be so graphic at times I feared seeing the plane in a field with nothing left but the smoking remains of the fuselage.

The fact that, from all the people I contacted, hadn’t heard anything either, just seemed to multiply my apprehension. I tried to keep busy, sang out loud, and prayed without ceasing.

He left on a Wednesday afternoon…and finally 1:35 AM Sunday morning Mozambican time,(5 days ) I get the call from a very tired weary yet relieved traveler.  After 3 days and 4 nights and lots of flight delays and mechanical situations he was there safe and probably not so sound for the lack of sleep. He apologized because he had tried to communicate and knew they couldn’t and there was nothing they could have done about it.

You know what I did, of-course, I took the TIME to be thankful. After realizing all that could have gone wrong I was grateful it hadn’t.

O...let us give thanks...
http://www.fh.org/work/africa