As the Costa Rica team met early on Saturday morning at the church with family and friends gathered around to send us off, we were given the unexpected news that our group of 16 missioners had become 15. The 4th John in our group, John Phillips had a death in the family and decided his presence would be needed back home. We were sad to hear the news but also excited to be heading out to the airport to get 3 Mikes, 3 Johns, a couple of Johnsons, a few troublemakers and 27 bags to Dallas Fort Worth. This would be the first but not last minor setback of the journey.
“So the last will be first and the first will be last”. (Matthew 20:16)
When we all boarded the plane to our layover in Dallas, we noticed Pastor Rick had been assigned the very last row of the plane, right next to the bathroom, right over the engine with a spectacular view of the wing. Once we got to Dallas and Rick got his hearing back we assured him that this was not done on purpose.
Our next minor setback occurred as we were waiting on our connecting flight to take off to San Jose. It was almost 20 minutes past scheduled takeoff time, the pilots and stewardesses were preparing the plane to leave but our entire group was not yet on. As it turns out, Mike Trexler’s slightly worn passport was deemed “damaged” and “unpresentable” by the American Airlines ticket counter supervisor. Mike was told he and his luggage could not fly to Costa Rica and would have to wait until Monday when he could get a new passport. As the doors of the plane started to close and the wheels began to move, the remaining 14 from Hayes Barton started to panic, worry, and pray. Moments later we see the doors opening and the whole plane erupts in applause as Mike hurries aboard. Cooler heads prevailed and Mike luckily found a supervisor to the supervisor who agreed that stopping someone in the middle of their trip for a semi used passport was not the greatest idea. We were finally on the way to San Jose!
After a long day of traveling we arrived at the Hotel 1915 in Alajuela, Costa Rica around 10pm. We got our room assignments, got checked in and were finally able to relax and enjoy each others company knowing we made it safely to our destination. As we admired the accommodations and shared some laughs, the trip was taking on a new more comfortable tone. We felt God’s grace and His presence, and began to look forward to a Sunday of worship, fellowship, relaxation, and a little more traveling.
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