Phil and I had a lesson in faith for the last 72 hours.
A lesson in putting into practice what we say we believe.
A lesson in trusting the Lord when we had NO control.
Torie left on an airplane headed for Chicago on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. Her final destination, Bible College in Schladming, AUSTRIA.
And that's where the odyssey and the trusting began...
We are blessed to have a friend who allowed Torie to fly on a buddy pass to Austria. The perk of that is it is much less expensive and usually you fly business class...ahhhh....the extra space,
the down-side....you fly stand-by.
We got a call from Torie, from Chicago, on Thursday afternoon. All the flights to Munich and Frankfurt were oversold. Our original plans were to have her fly to one of those cities and take either a 4 or 8 hour train ride, respectively, to Salzburg Austria. It looked like the flights were going to be sold out through the weekend, so we decided to just have her fly back to Charlotte and begin a Plan B.
The next thing we knew, a United agent called and said they were able to get Torie on a flight to Amsterdam and she's in the air.
That' good news and bad news....
Good news...at least she'll be in Europe
Bad news....it will be a 15 hour+ train ride to Salzburg, Austria...ugh
The next phone call we got was at 4:00 a.m., oh yeah, there's a 6 hour time difference between us and Europe. Torie found the train station easily located in the airport and was planning on buying a ticket to Salzburg. She'd call us when she arrived in Salzburg. ETA - 15 1/2 hours.
Bad news...her luggage is lost...evidently it's on the way to Frankfurt.
After a day with no word, I was at our church women's breakfast and I mentioned our "little" concern. The women stopped right in the middle of everything and prayed for Torie. I LOVE the body of Christ!!
After returning home we patiently waited for the phone to ring and we waited, and we prayed, and we waited, and we prayed. Still no word.
Two days later, still no word, and I'm spending time with the Lord and I pray these verses over Torie:
"But let (Torie) who takes refuge in You be glad: let (her) ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over (her)...." Ps. 5:11 aI make a call to the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam and explain the situation. I ask if we can confirm if she ever got on the train in Amsterdam, but since she paid cash there is no record.
So we wait some more...
Finally
72 hours later...we get a call...I am SO sorry but you won't believe what happened....
The story from her end unfolded....
Once Torie boarded her train for Salzburg, she shared a car with an elderly couple who spoke no English. She said at first she was guarded and just took cat naps, but finally exhaustion overtook her.
She finally put her passport "tucked upon her person" as I shall delicately put it(You Go Girl!! You got to love that girl's resourcefulness)and fell into a deep sleep. She slept SO soundly that she slept through her train change-over. Yes, that means she slept for more than 15 hours. ONLY a college-age student can do that on a strange train in another country!
When she finally woke up it was to a woman barking in her car that it was the
end of the line and she had to get off. She had slept through her stop and evidently many more.
Praise God she disembarked the train just to discover their was a train leaving in 15minutes that would take her back to Salzburg. So 21+ hours later she ended up in Salzburg.
From Salzburg she bought another train ticket to Schaldming (her final destination), and 1 1/2 hours later arrived in Schladming.
Exhausted, still in her lovely black skirt and heels, she got off the train ready to hike into town (at least a 15-20 min.hike). Lo and behold, at that exact moment, Erin from Nevada (whom she had never met before) came by the train station also bound for the Bible College and they were able to ride into town together.
Erin showed her where to stay in town (the College dorms weren't open until Sunday evening) and then they scouted out a restaurant.
Praise God that Torie made it safely to Schladming, Austria and that she met another student from the Bible College from the moment she stepped off the train...
not only was it another student but a big, strapping, 6'4" take charge guy, who took Torie under his wing when she was exhausted and needed someone to come alongside her.
....I prayed..."spread Your protection over her..." and the Lord sent someone in the flesh!! I love that we serve a God who is into the details of our life!
During the wait when we didn't know where she was, the Lord kept whispering to me...do you really believe what you say you believe? She is not alone..."I am with her to the ends of the earth."
It sounds a bit melodramatic now that she is safely at the Bible College, but let me tell you...when your 20 year old daughter is "lost" in Europe for 72 hours with NO contact with you...it's not a good feeling!
Being "out of control" is not an emotion that I am comfortable with, but it was a great lesson, once again, that my trust can only be in the One who is REALLY in control! Thinking I'm ever in control is only an illusion.
And now Torie gets to "suffer" in the beauty of Schladming, Austria for the next three months stuyding God's Word...that's the life!! (Oh and by the way...she still doesn't have her luggage. She may get REALLY tired of that lovely black skirt and heels!)
