The Story of a Bag that's gone AWOL – Part 1

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sittin' pretty in Ghana, where we safely made landfall last night. Praise God, we made it safely with most of our stuff! And thank the Lord that one piece of luggage went missing.

Why "thank the Lord" (beside the fact that He's commanded us to)? Well, here are some benefits that we've identified so far:

1) We were able to encourage - and be encouraged by - another team of missionaries that arrived on the same flight and had three of their bins disappear. They hadn't been to Ghana before, so it was a good chance to remind them that they are going to encounter raw spiritual warfare in this country and need a good prayer covering! (The word "raw" is used just because it's very obvious when you're here...there's spiritual warfare in the US too, but it is generally a little more veiled.) One of the verses prayed by one of their team members last night was praising God for being the Giver of every good and perfect gift, Who does not move with the shifting shadows. He is ALWAYS good, ALWAYS faithful, ALWAYS loving.

2) We didn't have to pay any baggage overage fees to fly north within the country! (Now, of course, we'll probably have to pay for it to come up by ground; but that's not expected to cost quite so much.)

3) I was personally reminded of God's watchfulness and care for me in the midst of every circumstance. =)

4) My mom was able to witness for herself that God is taking care of me even though I've one bag less than I'd anticipated. ;)

5) It reminds all of us to PRAY! So on the heels of my last post...please do pray for us! Of course, we'd be thrilled if the last piece caught up with us, but we know that God is faithful regardless of how it turns out.

Check back in a few days for Part II - I'll let you know either way what happens.

And again, thanks for those prayers!