Nicaragua: The Devil Must Be Mad

The Nicaraguan mission trip was going to be an interesting one, judging by how upset and inconvenienced the devil seemed to be.

As the mission trip coordinator, my problems began early. No matter how much I tried to plan ahead, one problem after another surfaced. Hard drives crashed, the laptop which was sent in for repair was not repaired properly and had to be sent in again. The printer quit working and had to be meticulously taken apart and cleaned.

Finally, short on sleep, I piled the kids and all the luggage into our van and took off. The plan was to drop the kids off in Oregon with my parent-in-laws and head on up to Canada to my niece’s graduation. I would then drive down to Seattle, put the van in long-term parking and arrive in Nicaragua one day before the group of fifty-nine people arrived. But the devil wasn’t through making life interesting.

As I was driving along the interstate in California, just 100 miles from Loma Linda, I suddenly heard a very strange noise. Despite the fact that Duane (my husband) had topped all the fluids and checked all the belts and spark plugs etc before I left…the engine had overheated and was now ruined.

I actually laughed out loud with eager anticipation. Now I KNEW this trip to Nicaragua was going to be a success because the devil was REALLY mad and trying to ruin everything. A kind policeman pulled over to help, called a tow truck for me, and soon I was at a car rental business transferring all my luggage from the useless van to an SUV. (I paid the rate of a small vehicle but the man upgraded me to an SUV without any extra charge. Isn't God good?)

Now, poor Duane had the problem of getting our dead van home from a distance of a hundred miles. I called some friends from church, (Linda and Mario Rocha) who had a full size pickup with a hitch. Duane's plan was to rent a flat-bed trailer, put the van on the trailer, and take it home. The Rochas did more than just lend us their pick-up truck, they found another church member (Ron Harrison) who owns a flat bed trailer. He went with Duane and helped him make the 200 mile round trip home at night. (Thanks you guys! I don't know what we would have done without you!)

Graduation went off without a hitch. It was great seeing my brother and his family! Throwing my things back into the rental car I left for the airport. I had given myself plenty of time, but as I crept past car accidents and road construction, I knew I was in trouble.

International flights state that one has to be there at least two hours in advance. If you get your luggage there less than one hour before the flight they won’t take it and you will have to look for another flight.

I pulled up to the front of the airport exactly one hour before my flight was to leave. Jumping out of the car, I scanned the area for curbside check in but there was no one. I bellowed, “Is there anyone here for Continental Airlines who can help me?” A Philippino man came out and I hastily explained my dilemma while heaving suitcases out of the car. Taking my suitcases and passport he ran into the airport. I turned around to get one more thing out of the car when suddenly I panicked. It dawned on me that even though he looked legitimate in his uniform, and he likely worked for the airport, I didn’t know where he had gone. I ran into the airport (leaving my rental car by the curb….a major no-no that could get me a ticket), as I frantically looked to for a man whose face I had only seen for two seconds. Suddenly I saw a hand waving in the crowd. It was him! Running over to me, he gave me my boarding pass, exclaiming, “run, run, run, or you will never ever make it!”

I dashed outside just as a police officer was coming over to give me a ticket. He frowned at me but let me go as I jumped in and drove to drop off the car. Grabbing my carry-on suitcase, I began to run, careening around corners and breezing past other stressed potential passengers. Suddenly, one shoe came off, so I just picked it up and kept going..one shoe on and one shoe off…clipity, clunk, clipity, clunk, clipity.......

As I gasped my way down the last long corridor I heard the loudspeaker crackle and a voice from the ceiling loudly proclaimed in somber tones, “Karen Glassford, Karen Glassford, if you do not show up in the next two minutes, your bags will be taken off this plane and your seat will be given to someone on standby. Karen Glassford, Karen Glassford, this IS your LAST call.”

With one mad burst of energy, I nearly crashed into the counter panting, “Here I am!”.

The woman said “Oh good, but do you care that I had to change your seat assignment?”

“Ma'am, I don’t care if I have to sit on the floor. I just have to be on that plane!”

“Well off you go then,"…the lady's eyes twinkled in amusement at my disheveled appearance. She patted my head in a motherly fashion as I put on my missing shoe and limped down the hallway to the airplane.

All eyes turned to stare at me as I heaved my heavy carry-on into the overhead compartment. I flopped into my seat and had arely clicked my seatbelt into place when when the plane began taxiing backwards.

“That was too close!” I breathed to myself “But once again, the devil looses and God wins! I can’t wait! This trip is going to be awsome!”