An amazing story has unfolded on our church Facebook prayer chain today. But I know many of you haven’t seen it. God has been so faithful and the answers to prayer have been SO incredible and God’s people have been SO generous, that I must share this with the whole church and all of my Facebook friends…

For several years, I’ve been praying about having our GLCC Missionary Eric Simpson join us for our annual ministry trip to Jamaica. Both Eric and I have been through a lot and have become close friends in the process. What a blast to have a time of joint ministry together! Eric, Lisa and their son Chase are a missional church planter family and they all work incredibly hard, so even though Chase couldn’t get off school and Lisa had responsibilities at home, I thought maybe at least Eric could get away. Eric is extraordinary with kids- his “Messy Church” initiative is wildly successful, and he can juggle, play the guitar, knows Christian magic tricks, etc. What an awesome team member he would be! Jamaica is part of the British commonwealth, he had a student, Brandan, he wanted to bring along, so it all seemed to make perfect sense.

So last December we began looking for airline tickets and everything was really pricey, but we finally were able to find suitable tickets from Delta to Montego Bay via Atlanta GA. Our church purchased the tickets and Eric and Brandan raised the rest through their church family and friends over in the UK. And for the last couple of months this duo has been attending our Jamaica team trainings on Sunday morning at GLCC via Skype. Among their many ministry assignments, Eric is teaching the 160 children of Cornwall Mountain in our fast-paced VBS style after school program and Brandan is working with Jeremiah Hagenhoff in a mid-day soccer day-camp at the school.

Today was the big day for Eric and Brandan to begin their journey, so I was understandably concerned when this morning my daughter Amanda woke me up at 6:41 because both the home phone and my cell phone were ringing off the hook. Eric was at the airport in Manchester and had run into trouble and had put out on Facebook… “Anyone from GLCC online? I need to get hold of Pastor Steve as a matter of urgency. Thanks!” Walter & Trish Arose and Jessi Lightfoot and several others had seen the emergency call on Facebook and were attempting to contact me.

I connected with Eric over Facebook messenger and he was absolutely wrecked. When they attempted to check in at the airport, the US Embassy computer link froze up and would not verify Brandan’s e-visa. Without State Department approval, Brandon could not route through Atlanta on route to Jamaica. He would not be able to set foot in the USA. The computer was down for over an hour and the gate closed and Eric and Brandan missed their flight. Neither Delta nor their 3rd party broker are accepting any responsibility- they were treating it like a no-show. It appears there is a total loss on the tickets. What a frustration and disappointment to see that plane back out and taxi down the runway.

At this point, I pushed out to the church prayer chain the following:

Hi GLCC family. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!

I just spoke with Eric Simpson. There was a freak electronic visa hangup for Brandan Silcox one of our Jamaica Trip team members from England and by the time the system cleared at Manchester Airport, Delta had closed the gate and they missed their flight. The posture of Delta and their third party ticket broker is that there is nothing to be done and they must purchase a ticket for the next flight which is over a thousand dollars. He is at the airport trying to work options now.

And immediately it began getting pinging… people started to pray. Dozens and dozens of people rallying to the cause.

Eric kept working the customer service counters at the airport and Pam and I were on our computers scouring the web looking for options but nothing worked. Flight costs were obscene- United, Delta, Expedia… nothing for under $1200 USD with immense layovers and more direct tickets started at $2400. After working for a while, we gave up. Eric had to arrange for the two hour ride home from the airport and I had to get to the church.

When I arrived at the church, I began checking airline sites again, monkeying with departure times and return trip days and found on Delta there were 2 tickets left on a flight that went from Manchester to Amsterdam, to JFK to Montego Bay. The price, $571 British pounds- not cheap but way better than all other flights listed that were over a thousand pounds. Two tickets left… two tickets left… But I couldn’t get in touch with Eric… he was out of cell phone range and Brandan’s e-visa issue was still not resolved and how were we going to afford two more tickets anyway? It’s not like the church is flush with cash right now and most all of the funds for the Jamaica trip (and then some) have already been allocated. We were flat broke.

Through text messaging I was able to contact Eric and eventually we connected. We decided that he would work the e-visa problem and I would further explore airline tickets. About 5 minutes after I hung up, into my office walked a friend of GLCC and a mighty warrior for the kingdom of God. Upon hearing of the situation, this dear saint pledged one ticket and within 10 minutes God brought about the funding for the second ticket. In 15 minutes God provided every penny.

Six hours after the initial emergency, I was able to push this out to our church prayer chain…

OK, Prayer Team, here is the story. The US embassy computers had a problem processing Brandan’s UK passport and the resulting delay caused 2 GLCC Jamaica team members, Eric Simpson and Brandan Silcox to miss their flight from Manchester England to Atlanta and then on to Montego Bay. We were able to book them for another flight tomorrow (that has a grueling 13 hour layover at JFK) and they will arrive in Jamaica at lunch time on Sunday.
Here are our current prayer requests:

1. A huge thanks to two generous donors who are covering the additional plane tickets
2. Pray that some form of refund or credit from Delta can be found.
3. Pray against the plans of the enemy. God obviously has big things in the works for this year since the opposition has been strong
4. Pray for health, endurance, strength, clearance at customs and MANY opportunities for the gospel to advance through out GLCC mission team for the glory of God

So does God answer prayer? Make up your own mind, but MY answer is Absolutely YES! We live in enemy territory and the forces of Satan rally against us. It is so easy to be distracted by circumstances, but God is still in control. We don’t know why things happen and God can be glorified with many different outcomes, but here’s the cool thing. People prayed by faith and amazingly, God chose to answer through the sacrifice and hard work of ordinary people to accomplish his purposes.

Here is a note from Eric…

For all our friends, Stateside and here in the UK .. it has been a day like I would NEVER had planned. My mind is racing over the frustrations .. frustrations over what should have been a VERY easy thing turn out to be a minor disaster [after speaking with the embassy, the e-visa system was NOT designed to be used with an iPad .. which is what was given us to use at the airport .. here is what happens when things are communicated clearly] .. amazement … at God’s provision through two people with a heart to give and, in my mind, the reason they have the resources is because of their incredible heart .. amazement at seeing God’s people pull together with details such as serving, loving, praying for one another and expressing genuine concern and sacrificial giving to people they don’t know other than God does [THAT is how church illustrate what God looks like] … appreciation for some of our own church family who gave of their entire day to ferry me and Brandan around only to arrive back at the same place we left at 5:30 this morning. For everyone reading this, we are back on track now with all this God-stuff happening .. slightly altered but looking to partner with God and our friends for the next several days. As I said earlier, I will be updating you as best I can … GLCC, we love you and appreciate you sooooooooooo much!

So what does this next week hold? I have NO IDEA. But I am working with a renewed sense that whether things go according to my plan or not, “we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.

Pray for our Jamaica team and we will see you next Sunday!

P. Steve for your 2017 Jamaica Team