The alarm went off at 3:50 am, but I was already awake. Grabbed my luggage and set out for the church to meet up with the Generation 99 Crew to head to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 am. But things don’t always go as planned…. After sitting for an hour on the plane waiting for them to fix a maintenance problem, the pilot came on over the loud speaker telling us we would be deboarding the plane indefinitely. Passengers were standing in line waiting to get on another flight, but that becomes a major task when you are traveling with 12 people. After about an hour of Pastor Chris and Karen calling to see about booking another flight, the call came over the loud speaker that Flight 2381 would be reboarding in 10 minutes. So 3 ½ hours after our scheduled departure, we headed to Atlanta on the plane we had just deboarded. Upon arriving in Atlanta, we rode the tram to get to our rental van. A miscommunication in the reservation resulted in being detained for another hour. Things don’t always go as planned….. Next came the drive to our hotel. We had made a reservation online for a Red Roof Inn, but when we pulled in we discovered it had been changed to a Motel 6. Although it looked very old and run down, we headed to our rooms. One look at the holes in the carpet and the smells that drifted from the rooms into the hallway, we realized this probably wasn’t the best place to be. Most hotels had no vacancies, but we did call and find a room. Pulling into the parking lot of the Days Inn reminded us of the Days Inn just down the road from LifeQuest in Belton. Need I say more? Here we were with these 8 teenagers and no place to go! God came through (and answered the prayers that I’m sure were being said all day from families back home) and we were able to find rooms at a Holiday Inn – things don’t always go as planned. So what did we learn? Patience, flexibility, and realizing that God is in control of everything – even our best laid plans! The kids have been so awesome throughout this very long and crazy day. When I think about it, it turned out to be a great day of learning life lessons. Oswald Chambers said, “Whatever your circumstances, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reactions of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose for your life.” Maybe that explains why ‘things don’t always go as planned….’ Can’t wait to see what He teaches us tomorrow!
