I finally got my luggage from the airlines on Saturday night at 6PM. We had returned from Macedonia on Tuesday evening so a total of fivedays went by with us separated from our clothing, toiltries, medicines and an assortment of needed personal items. From Tuesday through Saturday, I logged hundrends of minutes of phone calls to the airlines trying to find my bags. I called numerous times to "800-numbers" which led me to an endless trail of automated operators telling me to push numbers on my dial pad which lead me to waiting and listening to airline advertising and still not finding my bags. When i finally got to talk with a live person, i was in conversation with people in Central America, Phillippines and New dehli, India where most of the outsourced call centeres are located. Not until Saturday morning did i gat to talk with "Toni B." in Phoenix, AZ. The problem with Toni B. is that she informed me that my luggae was in Philadelphia Airport, so i jumped in my car and drove their Saturday morning. For the next two hours I engaged in lively discussion with baggage handlers in the city of "Brotherly Love." Only to discover midday that the bags had been flown to Harrisburg, PA on Thursday and that they had sat there for three days! You can understand how frustrating all of this was and that I did not have a high view of airl;ines baggage handling by Saturday evening.
Once we received our luggage, we unpacked each suitcase, took inventory and started laundry. And then started to repack for the next day trip to North Carolina, where we are recovering from the last few weeks ordeal. About 9PM Saturday night I checked my email befopre checking out for the evening. It was then everything came into perspective. A missionary friend of mine in Costa Rica wrote that he had been in Argentina doing some training. While in a bus station, two men approached him and stole his briefcase. In the briefcase was his passport, all his credit cards, computer and Bible. he chased the guys and they disappeared into a housing project -- that not even a policeman would go into. Mark spent the next two days cancelling credits, applying for an emergency passport and praying that God would miracleously make his briefcase reappear! It did not!!
After reading the email i was so convicted by my self centered and insignificant irritation of a few lost bags compared to Mark's nightmare in Argentina. I was so broken and convicted in how much I had whined in the previous days about the incompetency of the airlines and how inconvenienced I been through my lost luggage -- then it hit me -- "Mark will never see that stuff again -- not to mention -- all the work and heartache to cancel and recover everything -- and he could not leave the country without a passport?" God how could i be so stupid?
I wrote Mark and thanked him for sending me his prayer request -- instead of me praying for him -- God used it to convict me and cause me to repent! Certaining it is a good reminder to stop our whining and realize -- as bad as it might be -- there are others who have it worst!