Traveling. It can be fun, especially in college when you're young, road-tripping with friends and family, flying to different states, and getting invited to different competitions and conferences for your major. As the new year crept in recently I heard The Lord tell me that this year was going to be a year of travel for me. At first, I questioned and was like "guess you're going to picking up the bill for my travel expenses huh God?" I couldn't and still can't afford to travel.

At the beginning of every year, I read my journal from the previous year before I stow it away. As I was skimming I read a prayer that I wrote down and asked Jesus if he saw me fit to send me on another mission trip out of the country! It wasn't a coincidence that he told me that this was a year of travel for me. I immediately got excited and thought, "YES! This is confirmation I am going to go out of the country this year again!" Before I even had time to look up and research mission trips my church was doing for the upcoming year an opportunity struck with my job. My boss had mentioned to me that there is a conference held for Newspaper Journalist every month in Las Vegas and she informed me that I was eligible to go and if I agreed to go once a month and give a few presentations I would get a pay raise every trip. Not to mention, the trip and all the expenses are completely paid for by the company!

As exciting as this sounded I heard the enemy speak "Las Vegas, that's not you. You're too much adapted to country/suburb life." I heard him whisper "You wouldn't last a day there. You can't do that." After hearing these discouraging thoughts I started to pray about it to see if this is what God had meant all along about this "year of travel" plan he had for me. After two consistent weeks of prayer, I got confirmation that God was sending me to this city every month and there was a purpose each time.

Now that the long back story is over, here is the good part.

This past weekend was my first "business trip" to Las Vegas. It didn't take long for me to realize this was definitely God's plan for me to go on these trips! My flights were connecting. I flew out of Birmingham Alabama into Denver Colorado and then into Las Vegas. On my first flight (which I, fortunately, had a window seat on), I was seated next to two other people that appeared to be Christians. We bonded as the plane had no WiFi, by talking about the books we were reading, our churches and lifestyles and why we were traveling. As I explained I was going on business, the guy next to me explained he was stopping in Denver for a Ski-Trip with buddies and the old woman who had the aisle seat stated she was traveling because her husband recently passed away and she was going to stay with her kids in Denver. We all had different reasonings for traveling but it wasn't a coincidence that we were all seated together.

Then we met the man.

There was a man that sat in our row but in the aisle seat on the other side. All he had with him was a clear plastic bag with some clothes. He had a bottle of Coca-Cola and a bag of chips. Not that I would ever judge a book by its cover but if I had to guess he appeared homeless. At this moment, I promised myself that I would never joke around with my friends saying "I look homeless today" as I wore Nike sweatpants and a name brand sweatshirt and eighty dollar sandals. Not to mention, my hair healthy and teeth brushed. As I was sitting on the plane God kept putting this man on my heart. I was praying for him and his travels. I was asking God to tell me his story because I was too scared to ask him myself. After a three hour flight of doing nothing but praying the man leaned over and asked me and my new travel friends if we knew if the airport had pay phones.

Of course, we all couldn't answer. It's 2019 and everyone owns a cell phone and to be honest, I don't think I have ever even used a pay phone before. My answer was "I don't really know but when we get off the plane you can use my cell phone." The man sighed in relief. I smiled and thanked God at that moment for giving me an opportunity to bless this man and possibly get to pray for him. I was so thankful I said "Thank you, Jesus, that was cool" out loud. The man next to me said, "were you praying for him too." I answered "Yeah I was. You were?" The young man answered and said "Ever since we stepped on the plan God had him on my heart. Do you mind if I go with you to let him use your phone? We can both pray for him together probably." At this moment I couldn't help but think, "God you are the coolest person I know!" Of course, I responded, "Absolutely!" and we went about our flight.

As we landed…

The man glared over at me looking for reassurance that he could use my phone. I responded and said, "Just follow me out to the gate!" He did. After multiple times of him trying to get a hold of a family member and the call not working he started to get discouraged. He threw his stuff down and sat at the gate and began to cry. My new travel buddy and I decided to sit down next to him. He looked at us and said, "Don't you guys have somewhere to be." Yes, we did. I had an Uber waiting. My travel buddy had his buddies waiting on him. But I said, "I am not leaving until I know you have somewhere to go." The man placed his head into his hands that were rested on his knees. Looking defeated and embarrassed. That's when we asked the question

Can we pray for you?

He looked puzzled by this as if he had never heard someone ask this before. But a smile came to his face and he grabbed our hands. As I began to pray I prayed that his family would find him and that God would have his way with his travel plans. My travel buddy began to pray for peace and understanding in his life. Suddenly another female voice appeared as we all had our heads bowed and eyes closed. She began to pray for more specific things. She started to pray for healing and financial provision. She started to pray for his kids (wait he has kids?) She seemed to know a lot more about this man than we did. The man's head popped up mid-prayer and he fell to his knees after seeing this woman. It was his sister.

It was then I realized that I didn't have to leave the country to do ministry. It was no longer about where I went it was about who I touched while I was there.

I realized that I no longer had room to be mad at God for not sending me out of the country. I couldn't be mad that he decided to send me on a business trip every month instead. Because at that moment, I heard him say "your mission field is where I plant you. Not where you decide to plant yourself. You can do ministry anywhere. In the office, at a park, in your apartment complex and in this case in an airport on a business trip."

I realize that we as people hold so much love and compassion for others and with that those things are so powerful they can be used anywhere. The best part of it is, not only can our love and compassion be used anywhere, but so can the word of God and so can his love.