Waiting Can Be a Blessing

Have you ever been bumped off your flight and had to wait for hours to catch another one, missing all your connecting flights in the meantime? This happened to me just last Friday – and it turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise.

I am on a little speaking tour, stopping at three different ‘WorDshops‘ (mini-conferences for writers sponsored by Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship) in three different provinces over the next two weeks. My first stop was in Steinbach, Manitoba, where I was scheduled to be the keynote presenter on March 18. My flight from Grande Prairie, Alberta to Edmonton was delayed because of fog and when the replacement flight arrived two hours later, there was a long line up to get on that plane.

Low and behold, when it was my turn at the gate, the plane was already full! I was the last in line and there was simply ‘no more room at the inn’. I’d heard the flight attendant speaking to one of the others, saying that this might be a possibility. He even made an announcement asking if there was anyone willing to stay behind voluntarily and take a later flight.

I was told to go back through security and rebook my tickets. I had been praying for God’s protection and will, so I was quite calm about the whole thing. I’d heard of people being delayed and then the plane going down (not that I’d wish that on all those others passengers!) but I knew that I just had to leave it in God’s hands to get me to Steinbach on time.

As it turned out, missing that flight meant missing my connections in Edmonton and Calgary. (Which may have happened anyway because of the delay.) The organizer of the WorDshop was meeting me at the Winnipeg airport at 6pm, but now she and her husband would have to wait until 11:30pm – not fun since they live about an hour out of the city. However, there wasn’t much I could do about it. God had a plan. As long as I got to Steinbach by 8am, I figured it was a win!

And then… the airline attendant informed me that for my trouble and inconvenience, the airline would be sending me a cheque for $800. My eyes got wide, I’m sure! That more than compensated me for my travel costs.

You see, as Inscribe’s current VP, it was my responsibility to help organize the six WorDshops going on around Western Canada. While keynotes and presenters are paid, there is no money in the budget to cover travel costs. These events are typically small in size, and must be run on a cost recovery basis. To keep registration fees down, it means finding local presenters or asking those coming any distance to cover their own fare.

I believe in the importance of these events, and wanted to be supportive, so I was footing my own travel bill from BC to Manitoba, and back through Saskatchewan and Alberta on my way home. God has blessed me with a good job so I don’t mind ‘giving back’ where I can.

And then sometimes He surprises me with a blessing that I didn’t even see coming! The inconvenience was minimal compared to the reward. Oh… and I’d like to thank Air Canada for helping to sponsor this year’s WorDshops… 🙂