A true story.

“...put your trust in the Lord both now and forever more.” Psalm 131:3

We sat in the tiny crowded lounge of the Dushanbe airport in Tajikistan, waiting for our return flight home. I was reading in Psalm 131: “I do not concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.” My thoughts went back over this trip to Tajikistan and the many aspects of it that were out of our control, but not out of God’s.

The bus trip to a new airport 60 miles west of Ist.anbul was an example of this. We expected the bus to drop us off at the airport and were surprised when the driver pulled over to the side of the road at a junction and said, “This is your stop. Walk down that road and you’ll come to the airport.” There was nothing in sight: no house, no traffic, no airport, just a deserted road.

We gathered our luggage, got off the bus, prayed, “Well, thank you for this, Lord”, and set off down the cold, empty road, not knowing how far we had to walk with our heavy load. But, we hadn’t made it 20 yards, however, before a taxi came along and picked us up. This might seem like a normal thing to happen on a busy road to an airport, but not this one. We found later that only about five planes a week fly into it. The only reason the taxi driver happened to come by was that he had gone out to buy some cigarettes.

Things were so new at the airport that there were no services yet: no restaurants, no snacks, no newspapers, no tea, not even any cigarettes for the taxi drivers. While we were talking with some of the personnel, they mentioned that the shifts were changing and offered to give us a lift into town to get something to eat. Since it would be several hours before our flight left, we accepted.

After a bite to eat and a futile attempt to find some English language newspapers to take to our friends in Tajikistan, we started back. The weather had turned much colder by this time with a strong wind blowing. We asked a man on the street where we could get a bus back by the airport. He not only took us to the bus stop, but invited us into his shop, which was just around the corner, gave us tea and bought our tickets for us! We certainly were guided in asking the right person! A definite God sighting

The bus dropped us off at the same spot, and we began the hike to the airport, this time knowing it was about a mile and a half. However, we were not dressed warmly enough for the sudden drop in temperature and, with the wind chill factor, were freezing by the time we’d gone our 20 yards. I turned around to back into the wind and saw a small truck coming! The driver stopped and picked us up, dropping us off at the terminal!

An interesting coincidence, one might say. However, the whole time we were at the airport (several hours), we only saw five vehicles use that road, and two of them came along just at the time we needed help—and were willing to stop and pick us up! These matters, small as they are in the course of life, were too great and wonderful for me to orchestrate; these were God sightings, direct help from the hand of God.