I just can't stop myself from imagining how devastated, scared, hopeless, and horrific it was to be on that plane, in the middle of the accident. God have mercy on their souls.. :(
Looking back to couple years ago when I was living abroad and Indonesia was only my vacation destination, I realized God has been uber good to me. I realize any horrible thing could have happened when I was on a plane, when I was out in the wild wild world. There are things beyond human control, beyond the anticipation of high tecnology devices. But God's protection is my stronghold indeed.
When I was still in Atlantic College for High School, I traveled a lot from London Heathrow to Manado, Indonesia. It was not a short flight, not to mention the transits. During my 2 years of education in the UK, I think I went home twice. Not to mention the flights I took to explore Europe. Many surprising things had happened while I was exploring that continent of Blue Blood. After the United Kingdom, I was blessed with another scholarship to study in the United States, at Kenyon College, Ohio. During my 4 years pursuing a Bachelor's Degree there, I travelled once a year to Indonesia and travelled to many other states too. These were couple events that I can recall in no particular order:
A bomb threat at Heathrow when I was there, I was on my way home and was waiting for my plane. People at home was watching the news and apparently there was a bomb threat at Heathrow airport just right at the moment. But they could not contact me. And I knew nothing about the terror. Yet nothing happened to me. Safe and sound.
One winter break I decided to stay in London with my Malaysian friends. They were Petronas scholars and the company provided them apartments during school breaks (awesome!). So, I decided, why not exploring London for 5 weeks? London was spectacular! A city I would glady reside for the rest of my life. But just like any other big city, it has its downside too. One night after running for an errand, a psychopath/maniac chased after my friend and I on our back to the apartment. We finally got into the appartment building, which required residential card to get in. So the guy couldn't get in. But he was looking at us from the glass door until we took the elevator. That was one of my scariest incident in Europe. I was to scared to go out for couple days.
Sometimes during my study, during a break, I visited my highschool buddy in Italy. With no comperhension on Italian language, I decided to go to Venice bymyself and got lost. I missed my train and somehow ended up with a foreign Indian guy with me (just the TWO of us in the train! Lord, scared to death I was!!!)
Also when I was visiting Val another time (this time she was studying in Maryland and I was in Ohio), a guy wiggled his tiny willie towards me on a Greyhound bus, I had to sit just two rows away from him for the whole journey (which took about 4-5 hours). Gosh that was a traumatic event indeed!
When I was a Kneyon College student, I joined the Chamber Singers and travelled with them to many parts of the USA. The final destination was in Baltimore Maryland. After that final tour, we all departed individually (not as a group anymore). Valentine was supposed to pick me up. But she remembered the wrong date. And I couldnt call her because she was out with her friends that night and didnt have her cell with her :( I was alone, not knowing where to spend the night. People were off to their firneds' places. And suddenly one of the church members, Marjorie, offered me a place to stay. To keep the story short, she ended up as one of the most important and dearest people I have met in the USA during my 4 years stay
By th help of Marjorie, I got an internship in University of Maryland for couple months. I stayed at Marjorie's house. She was just like a mother to me. A British-American mother I never had :) Sometimes I drove to work. But some other days I commuted, since the commuter there was new and nice and for FREE! I love free stuff! Who doesn't btw? hehe.. From Marjorie's place to the nearest station, I had to walk for about 10 minutes. One sunny day, on my way home, I was stopped by a random guy trying to do/get only-God-knows what from me. I was scared. But I took a gut to yelled at him, and somehow he backed off. If it wasnt the angel of God that had protected me, who knows he probably had ended up robbing me or stabbed me for yelling. Thank you Lord Jesus..
Another incident that I will never forget was the time when Kenyon was under a danger alert. It was just a typical night. It was in the middle of a week, so students were just studying, doing homework, preparing for exams, maybe some were in the gym.. I was in my room doing hw. And suddelny we all got text from campus security telling us that we had to stay locked in our room wherever we were and make sure to contact our group friends to make sure they were not wandering around. Apparently, a killer had killed 2 women and a kid, mutilated their bodies and dumped it on our campus area (including the bloody car). It was suspected that the killer was still wandering around and could be in any of the residential buildings (since we do not lock or buildings because there's no need for it! our Hill was the savest place on earth!). Some of my friends had to spend the night at the library, some at the gym, some at their friends' rooms. Wherever they were, they just had to stay there until sunlight. Cops were all over campus, I could hear the helicopters flying back and forth. They finally found the killer, which was IN CAMPUS! Gosh.. America and its horor
Those are just couple incidents that reminded me of how fragile my life is yet God's grace is enough for me to get going safely. If I am still happy healthy and alive now, it is merely by His grace alone. I had no control over so many unpredictable events that had happened in my life and the "will happen" ones. Yet God has been super awesome and good to me.
Remembering Airasia QZ 8501. It was a flight from Surabaya to Singapore. A rather short trip compared to my London-Manado (15-18 hrs) or Ohio-Manado (30-35 hrs) trips. Anything could have happened on any of my long flights across the vast deep oceans or during the multiple transits. I even transitted in Moskow twice. Could have ended up like the Malaysian Airlines plane, shot down by the Russian/Ukrinan militants.
After all that blessings from God, I realize I can never claim that my life is mine. God is the ultimate owner of my life, my soul. And I can never thank God enough for everything that He has done for and given to me. I do not write this to compare myself to those who perished in the plane tragedies like MH 370 or Airasia 8501. I am just doing this to remind myself, and us all, that there is God who takes control over EVERYTHING. Sometimes we take this life for granted, persuming that our hard works are what keep us alive. Rememer that there is God. And that His love endures forever no matter what.
Thank you Lord Jesus.. For a new year for me to explore.
For a new life with my Ray to look forward to
Thak you just simply for who You are, for your faithfulness
Because Your grace is enough.
