God in the Sky

I was done with all the things I had to do that day, shopped for all the supplies I would need for the trip, got gifts for the families I would be staying with, and finished teaching an evening CPR class for my dentists office.  I was exhausted and I knew that I still had to pack everything! It was midnight, and I wanted so much to go to sleep, but I had to leave for the airport in five hours.  I had been nervouse all week but I couldn't quite figure out why. Yes, I was about to leave for a 3 month trip to the middle east, not quite sure of where I would be volunteering, and not having the details worked out about how long I would be staying in certain places; but that didn't bother me too much. I had this ball of anxiety, nervousness, and fear that had been inside my chest all week, but at this moment, it was almost paralysing. Why was I so nervouse about this trip, I kept asking myself. What am I afraid of? It was like that moment when you are on something really high, about to jump off in the water. You are excited about the jump, but you have to fight with yourself to take the leap.

With the help of my amazing, world's-best mother - I was packed in a couple hours with just enough time to sleep for 3 hours. I had the worst dreams that night. I can't remember what they were about, but I know that when my alarm went off three hours later, my nervousness was so intense that I literally threw up. My fears were starting to take form.

1.) What if a war breaks out while I'm there?
 That wasn't it. I wasn't really afraid of that - don't ask me why, I don't know; but I do know that wasn't it.

2.) What if I run out of money before my return flight home?
 That wasn't it either. God had totally provided me with enough funds just in the last two weeks before I left, with the contributions from family members, friends, and even more requests to teach classes - I reached my financial goal for this trip.

I kept thinking of more and more reasons that would explain this rare reaction from me, and then I hit it right on the head.

What if I spend three months twiddling my thumbs because I have nothing to do? That was it. What if I don't have opportunities to volunteer and serve God, or what if I don't learn anything about God while I am there? What if I just end up taking by living at peoples homes and not giving anything in return because there aren't any opportunities for me? Then this would look like a vacation, and I would disapoint all the people who are supporting me?

Haha. Welcome to my mind this early tuesday morning. I eventually started feeling better as I prayed for peace and talked to God about my concerns. I later realized when talking to the other americans, that many of them had that same attack just before leaving. Not for the same concerns that I had, but it was a scary, fear filled, I almost don't want to go feeling of negative emotions that overtook some of us, but praise God, we all came anyway, and how thankful we are to have obeyed what our hearts told us, and not our emotions.

Fast forward to the airport. Jessie Erickson and I travel through baggage check, security, and eventually our gate all the while randomly looking at each other with big, huge eyes and mouthing, "I can't believe we are going to Israel; I'm so excited!"

Now fast forward to the flights. Those worries of mine were still present, but I was filled with excitement, joy, and anticipation. Every so often, I would say a little prayer telling God that I was afraid of not having anything to contribute, and asking Him to provide opportunities for me on this trip, and to help me recongnize those opportunities when they arose.

And here is where the cool story begins:

We were two hours in on a four hour flight from Seattle to Philidelphia. When we land in Phili, we would have a four hour layover then hop a 10 hour flight to Tel Aviv. I was a little bit hungry so when the flight attendants came around for drinks, I also asked for some pretzels or nuts, but when they informed me that those snacks cost money, I declined and decided to suck it up for the next two hours. I got up to go to the bathroom in the back, and after I knocked my head and shoulders on all four walls of the lavatory trying to maneuver around in the rediculously small space, I exited and just stayed standing up in the back of the plane. There was still a big line of people so I pretended I was waiting in line so I could stand up for a long period of time. Plane seats are not made for comfort if your are over 5'11....aka me. As the line of people to the bathroom began to fade, I figured I would need a new excuse to be standing up in the area where the flight attendents hung out so I started to chat with one. A gift my dad taught me, you can talk to anyone, the key is just finding something you have in common, and just go off of that.

I talked to her about the lifestyle of a flight attendant, where she is based out of, how long does she have to work, etc. and at one point it came up that I was an EMT. She joking said, "Oh good, now we know to come get you if we have a medical emergency on this flight." Now if you know me at all, you know medicine, first aid, and injured people intrigue me very much. So then started my plethera of questions about, well what does happen when you have medical problems on board, do you have to land right away, whats the worst medical situation you've had to deal with in the past, etc. lol :) At this point, I have three flight attendants back there telling me stories and laughing it up in the back of the plane. Good times. They pretty much told me they have all the equipment on board, from oxygen to AED's and IV kits; and that usually if there isn't anyone on board they have to call the doctor in phoenix, where they are based out of, for instruction on what to do; but they are uncomfortable handling it themselves because they have only been given a class on how to do CPR and use an AED if needed.

So we keep talking about random things, where their headed to next, have they seen flight plan the movie, is there an air marshall on board (they wouldn't tell me) etc. when all of a sudden, a woman who is heading back to the bathrooms right by us and hits the deck, right at our feet, BOOM, unconscious! The flight attendants all looked at me.

Lets all keep in mind that I just passed my national certification for being an EMT like two days before this flight.

I went straight into EMT mode, checking for consciousness while the flight attendants tried to stop the passengers who were in the lavatory, (on either side of this woman) from opening their doors because everytime they did, they kept hitting the womans shoulders; which confused them and so they pushed harder; so the flight attendants are trying to put their lips between the one inch gaps of the door opening to tell the people to hold on. ---Its kind of funny to think about it now, because they were not actually hurting her, but they were so confused.

So I dragged her back to open area where we were standing, and she started to come to. I barely got her to thh back when I overheard the flight attendant on the phone with the captain saying, "We have an unconcsious woman back here, but don't worry we have an EMT with her." haha Long story short, 45 minutes later after some oxygen, orange juice and crackers,  she was alert and finally able to stand up by herself, and her vitals were remarkably improved from the almost unpalpable pulse and semi conscious state she was initially in. She requested that a paramedic check her out when we landed in Phili, so the flight attendants arranged that. Note to everyone, do not sit down on a plane for 2 hours straight after not eating for a whole day and then stand up all of a sudden. :)

We got her back to her seat, she was just fine, able to stand on her own, she got some juice and crackers in her system....good stuff. I had to fill out some paperwork per airline policy, and as I finished and was about to head back to my seat, the flight attendant that I first started talking to originally, asks me, "Hannah, are you hungry? Cuz we're gonna hook you up, girl!" haha I felt embarrased for accepting stuff for helping out so I politely declined, but that didn't work at all. She opened up those big metal cabinets back where we were, and started pulling stuff out. "Here do you like crackers, here are some crackers and some nuts, and pringles...., you want some alcohol?" "Ugh...no thanks," I started but was quickly cut off with, "oh ya thats right, you are about to hike in the desert. You don't need alcohol, here is some water." She pulled out the biggest water bottle I've seen. She then realized I couldn't carry all this sftuff back to my seat, so she started putting it all in a bag. Then the other flight attendant comes to the back and asks me that same thing, you hungry? You can have anything you want now." lol "That's what I'm doing," the other flight attendant said. So the second flight attendant starting putting Sky Mall products in the bag.

Oh my gosh, was I embarrased! An hour ago I couldn't even get a bag of nuts without paying, and now I have a whole tin of nuts, salami, cheese, and trail mix. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY HAD THOSE THINGS ON A FLIGHT! haha I went back to sit down in my seat with my bag of food and sky mall products, and I look back at Jessie who is two rows behind me giving me the most confused look in the world. HaHa...what an amazing flight, I was thinking. I love medical emergencies! We only had 30 more minutes til we landed, and as the flight attendants went around one last time to give passengers drinks, they got to my aisle to take drinks orders, started asking everyone around me in their stereotypical flight attendant voice, "Anything to drink? And for you anthying to drink, And for you.....and then when they got to me, "Hannah, what about you darling, can we get anything for you?" Would you like another water bottle to take with you?" At this point everyone around me is looking at me like, who is she? haha a little bit embarrassing, but not as much as when they came back with a box with 12 different snacks inside and said, "Here, this is for your friends, in case they get hungry you can share."  I looked back at Jessie once again who had the OMG shocked smile on her face like what is going on? haha  With all the stuff they gave me, it literally counted as another carry on item lol.

Another funny part to the story, as we landed we were met at the gate with like 3 cop cars, 2 fire engines, and an ambulance. Then I hear over the loud speaker, "Hannah, can you please come to the front, Hannah, please make your way to the front." HaHA. I knew they wanted me to talk to the paramedics, so as I am walking I am racking my brain trying to remember how to give report, something we learn in EMT class.

And that's pretty much it. When we get off the flight and get thank you's from all the crew members and captain, I was like on cloud 9! I told Jessie all about what happened in the back of the plane, and as I'm telling my story, the flight attendants walk out of the gate and yell, "Hannah, whoo! come with us to Vegas!" (which is where their next flight was going) Jessie and I were laughing really hard.

HERE'S THE COOL PART!
As Jessie and I are walking to our next gate and I'm telling her all the exciting details like an excited 5 year old, I literally stopped, and said oh my gosh.  Jessie said, "What?" I said, " Remember what I was talking to you about before that flight, how I was so nervouse this morning that I wouldn't have a purpose on this trip? I've been praying that God give me peace and opportunities, and LOOK WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" 

Now, I'm not saying that God made someone pass out to give me a little encouragement for this trip; but he let me be on a flight where there was going to be a medical emergency; and even if I still found it to be a coincidence, SHE PASSED OUT AT MY FEET! God was giving me encouragement and telling me, You have a purpose, here is some foreshadowing for you!" haha How Cool?!  I haven't questioned anything about this trip since. I have just trusted that God has these three months planned out for me, and he totally does. I will talk about it in another blog, but its almost as if I landed, and had an itenierary made up for before I got here. The opportunities that are popping up for me to serve are amazing!

Thank you all for praying for me! It is very obvious that you have. Please keep praying. I have met some people along the way who have shown me some beautiful hearts and some prayer needs. So if you could pray for some of these following things, we would be very thankful.

1.) The mother of one homes I am staying in works at a places called Jamima. A christian organization that serves the needs of special needs kids in Bethlehem, working with the kids and young adults during the days on rehabilitation, teaching them life skills, praying with/for them, and helping their families as well. I visited the place and was able to see so many beautiful children with a variety of different mental disabilities. Jamima is in a tough financial situation, so please pray that God will bless them. The majority of the kids and their families are muslim, yet the organization is Christian - and the staff use this connection to the kids and their families to minister to them when they have the opportunity.

2.) Please pray for the Middle East, that the people can turn their hearts towards Jesus. Just because it sounds impossible, doesn't mean you can't pray for it because through Christ, all things are possible.

3.) Please pray that I continue to serve the Lord in all the ways/opportunities that He has for me here, that He continues to become more and more real to me than He ever has before, and that I am in tune with His will.

I think you can comment on these blogs, not sure since this is my first blog ever, but I would love to hear from ya'll. Thank you for you prayers and contributions!

Shalom!