A story of changed seats

“Wow, you must really like your donuts,” I remarked as the lady sat down next to me on my flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

She laughed, “It’s for my nephew.”

So began an unexpected God-ordained opportunity.

I had originally selected my seat (37H) but changed my seat (50B) the night before the flight to try to sit next to another missionary, Doug, on the same flight. However, Doug didn’t take his computer and didn’t get my email so I thought that my effort to change seats had been a waste. However, as I was seated with an empty seat next to me, I prayed for God to help me have a gospel conversation with the person who would sit next to me.

Then I saw a lady put two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts in the luggage compartment and she sat down next to me. After my initial comment about the donuts which broke the ice, I asked her whether she lived in Bangkok or in Chiang Mai, where we were heading, about her job and her family and started to get a picture of ‘her story’.

Interestingly, although Amelia’s* family was Buddhist, her brother-in-law was a Christian. She recounted a time when her mother was in hospital needing blood, but there was no blood available. So she prayed to God for blood for her mum and the next day the blood was available. She had also been to church a couple of times and had a Bible.

I asked Amelia whether she understood much about what she read in the Bible and she admitted that she didn’t understand all that much. So I offered to tell her the story of the Bible in the hour we had before we landed. She listened attentively (not just out of politeness) and even had questions about parts that I had skipped in the story because of time.

When we had landed and I was in the aisle waiting to disembark, Amelia said to me, “You know what Rich, when I arrived at the airport I was annoyed because the airline had changed my original seat which I had selected, to 50A without asking me. But now I can see that God wanted me to sit next to you so that we could have our conversation.”

I smiled and replied, “I think you’re right,” and explained how I unexpectedly changed my seat the night before.

* Name changed

Used with permission from RC.