A Needle in a Haystack

Have you ever been in a situation where only by an act of God could everything turn out okay? Well, Lew and I rang in the New Year with a new understanding of trusting Him in any and every situation. It all started when we stepped off the bus in Tokyo from visiting Sarah in Suwa. We said our good-byes as Sarah got on one subway line, and we got on another. our destination...a movie theatre. We had done research and figured the location and show times of a theatre in central Tokyo. The plan was to see a movie, eat some dinner, and drink some coffee before catching the 12:04 train and also last train to Haneda Airport where we planned to spend the last 4 hours before our plane departed for Okinawa. The evening started out just as planned including finding a locker at the train station that fit all of our bags so that we wouldn't have to carry them around with us for the evening. Who could have guessed that it would lead to one series of unfortunate events after another?

Robin Hood was not a great movie, but it was in English and, despite some violence, was entertaining enough. Afterwards we walked around the large "mall on steroids" as we so lovingly nicknamed the Rippongi Hills shopping area to find somewhere to eat. After wondering for a while, we chose a nice restaurant and ate some appetizer soup. By now it was about 10:45 pm. We got our Starbucks Coffee and were just about to sit down to enjoy it and continue our count of foreigners when Lew calmly asked if Ark remembered where she put the ticket needed to retrieve our bags from the locker at the station. After doing a pretty thorough analysis of our pockets and purses, we both realized with, with a slight feeling of dread, that we had lost the ticket. We fought the crowds of about 1 million back to the train station where we attempted to call the number indicated on the 'if lost or stolen" sign. After much trying, the language barrier was insurmountable. A nice man at the information desk helped us convey the message needed, and we were told it would be a few hours before someone could come and open the locker. Both of us needed to start praying...and praying we did.

Ark remembered seeing something fall out of Lew's jean's pocket while on an elevator, so we decided to retrace our steps to where perhaps the receipt had been lost. Inside the elevator, we found a movie ticket stub...but no locker receipt. We continued retracing our steps knowing full well that the possibility of finding a small slip of paper on the ground on New Year's Eve with millions of people swarming around was slim to none. It was like finding a needle in a haystack...literally. Still we kept praying as we resigned ourselves to sleeping in the train terminal while waiting for the people to come and open the locker door for us. Lew felt compelled to go one direction. We obeyed and began randomly kicking over small papers on the ground in hopes of a miracle. Well, Lew picked up a paper and examined it closely to realize that it was indeed our receipt. Both of us felt like rejoicing loudly and crying hysterically at the same time. Why do we doubt the Father? He is so good to get us out of binds. We went to the station, retrieved our baggage and made it on the very last train of the evening taking us to the airport. Both of us were relieved and blown away that we had indeed found a "needle in a haystack."

Well, if the story had ended there, we would have understood that God wanted to show us His hand faithfully and would have continued to rejoice throughout the evening. But, it turns out that the monorail to the airport shuts down earlier than expected and though we made our train from the theatre, we would have to wait until 3:50 am for the next one. A McDonalds close by advertised that it was open 24 hours, so we ventured off. Hey...4 hours in McDonalds couldn't be that bad. Unfortunately the rest of the million people in Tokyo had the grand idea of sitting in McDonalds while they waited off their hangovers. That wasn't the place for us. We gave in and opted to pay the money and take a cab to the airport. By now, we were seriously asking God what He wanted to teach us through this evening. We had been blessed to see Him miraculously provide what we needed to get on the last train, so what was it He wanted to teach us as we sat in a cab going to the airport? Ark wondered if she was to miraculously begin speaking to the cab driver in Japanese...but nothing like that happened. We thought we would finally be safe and comfortable in the airport and have 4 hours to think about God's lesson for the evening in a warm place.

Ok, once again...it didn't happen that way. The cabby dropped us off at our terminal and sped away. Pretty quickly, we realized that something was wrong when the automatic doors didn't open. Turns out the terminal closes at 9:45 pm and doesn't open again until 5 am. It was currently 1:30. I didn't know terminals closed. What we were to do now? Each carrying about 40 pounds, we decided we would try to find the International terminal...surely that one had to be open! We ended up at another terminal...on the other side of the airport as the International one. We saw a sign for a hotel at this terminal and went inside to find out how much it would cost to stay there for 3 hours. Turns out that you need reservations. So here I sit, yes, quite warm and safe, at 2:20 am in a little nook of a very closed terminal awaiting the 5 o'clock hour so we can check in, check our bags, and THEN get on an airplane to Okinawa. I must admit I'm still wondering what God wants to teach us through this. Why would He get us out of bind and show His miraculous power at the beginning of the evening, only to have us sleep in a deserted nook of an airline terminal? Don't really get it. But, I'm still rejoicing in the fact that God is so much bigger than anything I can think of! He knows the end of this story and will somehow use it for His glory. We hope that the first five hours of 2011 are not an indication of what the year will be like, and we apologize to our moms and are so grateful you didn't know we were wondering around Tokyo at 2 in the morning with nowhere to go.

UPDATE: It is now 2:00 pm and we are safely home! A night in a closed airport terminal, eating chocolate, and reading books takes a toll on a gal! I am ready to take a nap...or perhaps I'll just call it a night in a few hours. We are so blessed and thankful to be home in Okinawa where believe it or not...it's COLD here too. Oh well. Perhaps we will have to find a heated rug....