When life does not go according to plan
The Lufthansa plane lands on time in Bogota. In two and a half hours, the connecting flight should take me to Lima. The Airbus is parked at an outside position and some buses bring passengers to the aircraft. As soon as I take my seat, I fall asleep. 21:00 in Colombia corresponds to 4:00 in the morning in Western Europe. Occasionally I wake up. We are still in parking position. 90 minutes later, the captain breaks the silence. There is a technical breakdown, as we unfortunately hear we have to go back into the building. A bad mood spreads among the passengers. The onward flight is scheduled for 5 a.m. in the morning. Delay over 7 hours.
I boot up the laptop and want to write an info letter for Diospi Suyana. But unfortunately there is a problem with the software and I have to renew the license on Monday. Everything is quite annoying, but I know I really have no reason to complain.
Before the start in Frankfurt I had a short conversation with a supporter of Diospi Suyana. He has been fighting cancer for a year. A few days ago, I learned from friends that their son – in his thirties – was suffering completely unexpectedly from a malignant bone marrow disease. Prognosis: Unclear.
Bogota at Gate A7B: While disappointed passengers to my left and right are dozing off on the floor of the waiting hall, I am watching the latest edition of my favorite ERF program “Mensch – Gott”. I hold the small speaker to my ear so as not to disturb anyone. In the program, a man tells of the death of his wife and how he was suddenly left on his own with four young children. There came a moment when he had to choose between holding on to his faith or renouncing God….
If we really take off at 5, and if I can grab an early flight to Cusco in Lima, I would be in Curahuasi sometime in the late afternoon – instead of the morning. Then the fight with the authorities immediately continues. Peru’s officials produce bad news absolutely reliably, and humanitarian works like Diospi Suyana are as exposed to this ignorance and sometimes even open malice as anyone else.
A quote from Paul comes to mind. These are the words that have ended every lecture I have given for almost 20 years:
That’s all I want. I want to know Jesus Christ and experience the power of His resurrection…. in the hope of one day rising from death to life myself. (Phil. 3,10) In all these years, hardly anyone has noticed that I have left out half the Bible verse. For Pünktchen, Pünktchen, Pünktchen says, “I want to share the suffering with him and die as he died!”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been pondering this passage a lot. In doing so, I realized that in some ways we truly share the sufferings of Christ. Every harassment we go through at Diospi Suyana, every frustration and every night spent awake, every ingratitude and badmouthing – is a consequence of our decision. We work in the name of Christ for the needy of the Andes – and it’s no walk in the park. “And die as he died!” At the end of his life, Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished, done. I have fulfilled my mission!” Yes, that’s how or similar to how my wife and I want to put it in our last lesson. /KDJ
