Our plane left Nadi an hour late, about which we had been told that afternoon. At the Los Angeles airport, it took us over an hour and a half to get our luggage (not just ours, but many waited that long and some were still waiting when ours finally came.) So of course we missed our connecting flight to Dallas . We were scheduled to arrive around 9 pm and to be at our end meeting the next morning at 10:30 .

 

The Air Pacific rescheduler was a bit testy at first, but Josh's placating, understanding manner seemed to help her settle down and realize we weren't blaming it on her. (Steve was kind of in her face, but he finally gave up and left it to Josh.) Of course many others were in the same predicament so most seats had already been taken. She finally said she had two seats on a 7 pm flight, so we were figuring out who should go for the meeting and the others would just go on to Indianapolis. (The only alternative she suggested was flying to San Francisco and then to Dallas , which would mean another all night flying. We didn't think we all were up to that, but Josh and I were going to do it if we could get the others there directly.)

 

Josh later that it just hit him hard that he wouldn't be able to share how God had taken us from 8 readers to 93. Gina said, "What kind of mission team are we? We'd better start praying!" So the rest of us started praying. We focused on Josh's Sunday sermon point that we should ask for God's will--that if he wanted us there he'd have to do it. In his lesson, Josh had said that the will of God for us is always good, but that we must ask him for his will to be done. So we did!

 

Later, the Air Pacific lady, Eileen, told us this: As we finished praying, she called to confirm the two tickets for American Airlines. As she was talking to the AA person, she asked if she could confirm the two Boyd tickets. The person said she had 4 Boyd tickets and 2 Middleton tickets that had just been reserved. Eileen assured us that she had never typed in those other four names! She said it was clearly God because it happened just after she saw us praying. So since she had 6 of us getting there, she called United again about their 7 pm flight and two tickets had just been released! She was afraid to try to change names on the first six for fear she'd lose the seats, so the two who went on United were Steve and Alison. They didn't get there in time for their luggage to make it, but they made it just fine--after Alison used her sweet spirit to talk them into letting them on the plane. I told Steve that that was why it wasn't the two of us together, because we just aren't as sweet as Alison! Eventually they got their luggage, of course.

 

So we were all at the end meeting, which is always inspiring. Eleven teams reported from around the world. They have an end meeting almost every week through the summer. Talk about how God is at work!

 

We hope that many good seeds have been planted and that they will be nurtured and watered. We thought the hand-off meeting on Saturday went great. We were very reassured that the local members already knew so many of our readers and their families. Of course the readers who attended Sunday worship encouraged us also. And Bimlesh, the local Indo-Fijian minister, did a great job with his remarks! We thought he said just the right things to make people feel welcome but not pressured. It was a marvelous six weeks of seeing God in action!

 

Lanita and Steve teach personal development courses for both women and men as well as marriage seminars within the local congregation. They write about such diverse topics as listening, prayer, public speaking, parenting, and growing closer to God and family. At the present time, Lanita is a free-lance writer and manages Steve's speaking business.