God's ways are not our ways: Travel Problems

Jungle: November 2012: Part 1 

God has been using me more and more in the jungle, and I think it is fair to say that I feel highly blessed each time I go. This time was certainly challenging, especially in the area of transportation but God used the situation for His glory...

The Church with newly completed roof where the Learning Community happened

Our plan was for the team, Ronald, Nancy and I (with Dennis and Charmian, fellow church leaders and friends) to arrive on Monday morning and then do the learning community conference from Monday afternoon until Thursday afternoon, and on Friday, I (Mark) was to perform the wedding of Erling, a friend and part of our central jungle team to his bride Maritza. However, God had other plans.

Erling and Maritza in their formal outifts

We left our house at 3am Monday and arrived in good time at the airport to  check in.  The plane was full of people going to work on Monday morning, and people with urgent contracts in and around Pucallpa.

As far as we were aware there were no problems, expect our drooping eyes and tired bodies until we reached the departure lounge and the screen said the flight to Pucallpa was delayed. This was not the first time that I have been delayed due to weather so I settled down and started to read my kindle. Ten minutes later the LAN staff member announced the flight had been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and we would have to find another flight and collect our luggage in the baggage reclaim. As you can imagine this was not widely accepted with joy and was greeted with a lack of understanding (huge understatement) of why the flight was not just delayed until later. 

We were told that we would get flights the next morning, and had to go out to the main check in area to do this. By the time we reached the front of this queue we were offered flights for Tuesday night. I explained that I was leading a conference starting in the afternoon and I needed to be in Pucallpa and not Lima. We reluctantly accepted the tickets for Tuesday night and prayed and thought of other solutions. Meanwhile Anna back at home had cut open her finger from the broken glass of our liquidizer making the morning juice. At this point we felt something was afoot. 

Anna then mysteriously received an email from her sister asking her if everything was ok, because her boyfriend's dad (who we have never met, and he doesn't even know our names!) was woken up by God in the night to pray for us for two hours.  

So we will never know this side of heaven, but God obviously had a reason for allowing that flight to be cancelled! 


It is important to remember that all of this happened before 7am, and so this gave us time to make the decision to get the bus and travel overnight arriving early on Tuesday morning. 

Dennis & Charmian talking about marriage

On previous trips to Pucallpa I had always avoided the bus. Partly because it takes between 16 and 24 hours (compared to a 45minute flight!), and partly due to the immense altitude as the bus crosses the peaks of the Andes.  Mainly, however, I had been discouraged by the 100% negative reactions to the journey by those who had ever made the trip!  But with no flight available within the next 36 hours, we felt that God's leading to get the bus, especially as people from the inner jungle had already arrived in Pucallpa ready for the conference. 

It is times like these when we are acutely reminded that the plans of God are not our plans.  The taxi driver to the bus station needed to talk to me. We were having the usual conversation Peruvian taxi conversation about life, the universe and everything and the driver started to open up to me.  He began to talk about his negative church experience with an established denomination who unfortunately has a tendency to control their people. 

He told us about how he and his wife had been involved with this church, especially his wife, but how over time the demands of the church (which was deemed more important), meant the family no longer spent time together.  
  
This was very interesting as we were going to speak in Pucallpa on covenant and how God is number 1, spouses number 2, kids number 3 and then calling, ministry, and then job if not covered by the other 2. 

Due to all this pressure his wife and he left the church, and have now been separated for a while, and the relationship is very strained. I got the chance and priviledge to listen to him and then to pray for him, a great honour.

This was posed for but you get the idea.

As we arrived at the bus terminal we got the last tickets with an 180 degree seat and left in the afternoon at 1.30pm.  The 16 hour journey arrived in Pucallpa early which was a welcome relief, after sleeping on and off for 13 or so hours, under the influence of a drowsy allergy tablet and 2 anti-sickness tablets. The journey was not as bad as I thought it might have been. I would be willing to do it again if required, although I hope I never have to. 

Three things I remember from this journey: 
1. Waking in the altitudes of the high Andes mountains, in the pitch dark, and struggling to breathe, due to the lack of oxygen at upto 5000 metres, 15,000 feet. 

2. The speed the drivers were driving at on hairpin and roads with sheer drops by our side. The bus had a 90 kph  speed limit (60 mph), and had a speed alarm which sounded at 91kph. The brief times I was awake and conscious I must have heard the alarm 5 or more times in a matter of 10 minutes.   
3. The strange choice of films chosen by the lady in charge of meals and customer care. Let me just say they were not family viewing!

The travel problems did not end upon arrival. On day 3 we were trying to get a refund for our cancelled flight.  Unfortunately, the LAN phone rep. managed to cancel both the outgoing and the returning flight.  Suddenly, the reality of having to make a return bus journey on my birthday was looming. 

Wednesday afternoon we visited the LAN office.  Apparently the flight hadn't been cancelled. 

Friday afternoon, we returned to the LAN office just to check that the flight hadn't been cancelled.  It had. 

Fortunately, the LAN rep in the office that day was very helpful, although she could do nothing about the cancelled flight.  She could get us on a now much more expensive flight though! 

However the Lord is sovereign and He had a plan. Eventually, a LAN rep found us a cheap internet flight home on my birthday - with a rival airline! He even booked it for us!