Plan Vs Purpose - Peru Day 6

Today was the day that we had been leading up to all week.  With 2 days of planning, assembling and prayer behind us, we prepared to distribute wheelchairs today.  We drove over to our new favorite coffee joint, Cafe Verde and enjoyed our last taste of cafe posado, or as we Americans call it - 'drip'  (for the record, cafe posado sounds much more exotic...).  Arriving at the site of the distribution, I really didn't know what to expect.  We were there early enough to beat 95% of the volunteers and all of the participants, families and guests.  The next few hours became a blur of physical effort, the frustration of not knowing any conversational spanish and being emotionally touched by seeing children and adults being fitted for chairs - and even more importantly, given the Gospel in "church" as we began to call it.  For more on the day's events, please read Fred's blog:  (http://boyradd.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/peru-day-6/)

The rest of my blog will be dedicated to one of the things I feel I learned in Lima...but I really didn't catch until we started our last night in Lima and into the USA.  As we approached the restaurant, my phone began to ring.  It was the airlines.  Our flight was cancelled.  I did a quick survey of our team and realized that these now seasoned veterans weren't going to start crying and moaning.  I called the airlines, got us rebooked in the same timeframe (actually an hour earlier) and instead of heading to Ft. Worth, Texas, we started our journey at 1:05am for Miami, Florida.  Waking up about 45 minutes before we landed (and falling asleep about 3 hours before that...) I was immediately on the phone as our next flight was booked for 4:30pm in the afternoon.  As we cleared customs, dragged suitcases and ran around Miami International, we booked two other flights which we subsequently missed, finding ourselves headed to DC/Reagan at 12pm.  I sat down and watched the line of travelers file past me.  Just to be clear, at 6'1" and 200lbs, the dream of having an empty seat next to me is more than I like to imagine, but the hope always remains.  A small man in his 50's took the window seat to my aisle and I was watched the last of our passengers come aboard, I knew I was in for a treat.  A seat between us, I proceeded to talk to the stranger at the window for the whole flight (more on that in my blog post tomorrow).  Landing in DC, I realized the fulfillment of Proverbs 16:9, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."  Throughout our trip, although we had an agenda, schedule and idea of what we were doing, it was clear in retrospect, time and time again, that God had us right where He wanted us every moment.  Whether it was a bus trip to the mountains, an early turn-in at the hotel (once) or a cancelled flight, it occurs to me that God's sovereign plan encompasses ALL of life, not just the mission to Peru.  So with eyes tinged with a bit more wisdom, I need to remember that although I plan my way, the ultimate in GPS is still God's plan - and His plans for me. 

Proverbs 16:9 - "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."