We fumble, He humbles

I left Singapore in the wee hours of 2nd Jan 2008 to return to life in Thailand. I thought to myself what a wonderful start to this New Year! Back to the peaceful lifestyle I enjoy. Little did I know that God had something up His sleeves…

We had 6 luggages, a desktop computer plus 4 carry-ons, handled by one man & three ladies! Just like what I’d expected, our check-in luggages were overweight. After a quick calculation on which luggage to be hand-carried, they choose mine.

As most of you know, no liquids are allowed on board. I thought hard on what I had packed days ago and remembered that all my toiletries were in another bag. Time was ticking away and we needed to grab a bite before we boarded the budget plane, so we said our goodbyes to those kind souls who sent us off at that crazy hour.

Just to reassure myself, I opened my luggage, gave a very brief check and headed confidently through immigration. At the security counter, as my luggage went through the scanner, the lady in blue gave me this look. “Oh no!” was all I remembered saying.

She practically turned my luggage inside out. My clothing’s spilled all over. Couldn’t she do it in a more gracious manner? The queue behind me grew longer as my heart beat faster. Finally, she found the offending article - I had a bottle of bubbles from Toy‘R’Us and another bottle of special glue for scrap booking which cost me $20. No way was I allowing her to just throw it away!

“If only I did a thorough check” I kept blaming myself. Thank God mom was just behind me. She worked her brains and quickly made a call to our friends who had already left the airport. The lady in blue seeing how desperate I was, was nice enough to give a little help in stuffing my clothes back.

We tried asking the officials if they could pass it to our friends who were turning back to pick it up, but they were so unfriendly! My mom, being someone who never gives up easily, went to the immigration office and requested if she could walk out even though we had already been through passport control. From where I stood seeing her, I uttered a quick prayer but I somewhat gave up hope.

Within the next 10 mins, my mom came back empty handed with a wide smile. My heart rejoiced! “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” (Ps 136:1). Even in these little situations of life, He is in control.

Hurriedly, we ate something from the café and then heard the announcement that it was the last call for our flight! What a scene, seeing us run down that long hallway with the amount of carry-ons we had, just like in a movie.

My dad suddenly stopped “Does any of you have my waist pouch?” He took off his jacket and searched in vain. “This can’t be happening to us!” I thought. We dropped everything. The green waist pouch was our life! There was important stuff inside. A credit card, some money, internet banking toggle, and most importantly, dad’s Thai work permit (which took us a year to apply).

My dad ran back to the security scanner. As we waited, I went down on my knees to pray. I had high hopes this time, but he came back shaking his head. I don’t know how to express my feelings at that point of time. Last call! Last call! Should we board the plane?

Everything seemed to happen in just a split second. Once we got on the plane, the doors were closed and we were airborne! What is going to happen next? “God, why?”, I asked. He replied, “One moment you can be praising Me, and the next you doubt Me?”. I was ashamed.

With tears in my eyes, I thanked Him with a genuine heart, knowing that He held our family in His mighty hands. It was a struggle within, but I chose to rest under His wings. We landed safely in Chiang Mai and to our delight Rev Abel was there to meet us. Thank God for friends!

Since it was the New Year season, we weren’t able to get tickets for our 4-hour coach ride home to Mae Sai. With the help of Rev Abel, we finally got a van to transport us. By the time we boarded the van, we were so drained. The next moment I opened my eyes, I was back home!

As we were unpacking our luggages, we contemplated how to report the lost waist pouch. All of a sudden, at the very bottom of my luggage, we saw the lost pouch! We shouted at the top of our voices with surprise, joy and thankfulness to our Heavenly Father.

We figured that after it went through the security scanner, my dad forgot to pick it up and as my pile of clothes was laid out and stuffed back in, the pouch somehow went in too. What a way to start our year with this lesson of trust from the Lord!

Wishing each of you God’s best for the year ahead! Blessed 2008!