Acknowledge Him - He Works All Things for Good!

It was an eerie feeling looking out the window of the airplane. The clouds looked quite ominous; I had never seen them appear so dark and layered. We were fifty miles from the eye of a hurricane. The pilot had already attempted to land in Santo Domingo once but could not see the runway well enough. He was circling around for another try!

As we landed my luggage was slightly delayed. I prayed, “God, I give You thanks in all things”, trying to stay in peace. As I caught up with the team, customs had taken issue with the 50 brand new backpacks we were bringing in for the very poor children of El Prado. We ended up in a basement area talking to Dominican airport officials. “You have to go to such and such building in Santo Domingo with the proper papers“, they said. Translation, pay the appropriate bribe or forget about seeing these backpacks ever again. Many people had sacrificed to send us with these backpacks so we could not just lose them.

I explained that we did not fly in to sell 50 backpacks and that they were for the poor, but nothing I said seemed to help. It turned out the hurricane that was supposed to be moving away from the Dominican Republic had actually come in closer! Suddenly, the entire airport was being closed so the officials told us to take the backpacks and go!

We made it to El Prado a little wet but with no problems and all the children received backpacks for the starting school year. On the flight home the following week we had the same crew on our plane. They said the pilot was told to go and land in Puerto Rico but he is known for being a bit of a maverick and tried to land instead! Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Yes, God directed our paths and even used a hurricane for our benefit. He is good!