Keith & Kay Seabourn

In purchasing my airline ticket to travel to Egypt, I tried to route myself through Rome on Alitalia. I fly Delta and its Skyteam partners. The Delta website routinely routes flights through Paris and their Air France partner.

I wanted to fly Alitalia, who is also a Skyteam partner. But I couldn’t get the Delta website to book a flight through Rome.

Now I know why God didn’t let me book this trip on Alitalia. From the paper here in Paris today:

Thousands of travelers were left stranded on Tuesday because of a strike by Italian air traffic controllers and Alitalia flight attendants that forced the cancellation of hundreds of domestic and international flights.

The Italian national carrier, Alitalia, alone canceled 394 flights Tuesday because of the 10 am – 6 pm strike.

Other international carriers also canceled flights because of the walkout by air traffic controllers.

God used the Delta website to prevent me from booking a ticket on the route I thought I wanted to take.

When God speaks, we are wise to listen.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Eddie and Madia were singing praises to God, even though they lived through the civil war in Liberia and the difficult reconstruction afterwords.

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Lincoln was singing praises, even though he has lived through the war in Sierra Leone (anyone watched the recent movie Blood Diamonds?).

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see…

Charles and Michael and Joseph and Lewis were singing, even though they live with ongoing instability in Nigeria.

We’re back in Africa. Singing praises to God with enthusiastic people who believe in moving when they sing. With people who love and serve Jesus in difficult places and under stressful circumstances. With people whose enthusiasm for God is boundless. The land of rhythmic handclapping that puts our American clap-clap-clap to shame. Before the first song, it was decided that we would use Nigerian handclapping rather than Gambian handclapping. I didn’t even know there was a difference!

It has been good to renew friendships with these men and women who were new staff when we left Nigeria 15 years ago. They have continued in faithful ministry and are now leaders across the area. We first met Eddie in the 1980’s when he joined staff. He’s now the national director for Liberia. Tony was the new accountant when we left Nigeria. He’s now the national director of Nigeria.

Yes, it’s good to be back among people who refuse to stop ministering. They refuse to let undependable electricity, questionable travel options, banking systems that make support raising challenging, universities that are frequently closed because of student strikes, lecturer strikes, or just general unrest dampen their enthusiasm for helping everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus.

Yes, great is Thy faithfulness.