Police Escort

Something happened this week  that was so unusual even Paul said I need to blog about it.

We had a full morning at the hospital and around 3 pm we needed to leave the hospital to deliver 9 boxes of nursing books to a local clinic that has recently opened a Christian Nursing School. Following our dropping off of these books, we drove to the airport to pick up a visiting anesthesia resident.
Words cannot describe the beauty of the new airport in Niamey, Niger. Everything about it is beautiful, efficient and clean. There are bones of ancient animals with historical notations. There is a cafe with a sign that looks very much like Starbucks but don't be fooled! It is a knock off. However, since we were early, we went through security that is required to enter the airport and treated ourselves to a pot of tea served in proper tea cups. Image us sitting, sipping, and chatting. All of a sudden a police captain uniformed and armed asks to speak with Paul. The brief conversation is only partially understood as the policeman spoke so quickly. Being slightly paranoid, I thought he was suggesting that the cafe was only for departing passengers and so he would show us where to find the arrivals. He mentioned that the plane we were waiting for would come in at 16:11 precisely.
Paul and I finished our tea wondering if we had done something wrong by coming into the airport and having tea while not being passengers?
We looked down the terminal and saw one or two passengers come out from customs and baggage claim. We assumed these were the first class passengers and since we knew that the young doctor was not coming first class we finished our tea and began our stroll down the terminal to the arrivals. Immediately, the police captain strides up to us and says he will escort us to the arrival hall. There is only one, so we were a little confused and still feeling perhaps we had violated some airport regulation. SURPRISE! We were not only being escorted to the arrivals we were being escorted right the way through to the escalator where all the passengers must come down. We walked passed other police, customs officers, public health nurses checking for yellow fever vaccinations and so on. We were in total shock! We had no ID on us other than our business cards for CURE and hospital badges which would mean nothing to immigration officials if we were asked what we were doing there. Every time we passed another official person, Captain AK would say, these people are with me. At one point he received a call and said that he needed to go for a few minutes and if anyone asked us anything, we were just to say speak to Captain AK.

There is a spiritual analogy here:

We have no authority to go into the presence of God who is holy. We need an advocate. We need an escort who can vouch for us, who can give us permission.
Jesus Christ is our escort to God's Presence. We have no authority, no credit of our own.
Jesus told His disciples that one day He would have to leave them but He would send an advocate, a comforter in other words Jesus would send His Holy Spirit. While we were fearful to be left alone in the unauthorized zone, we did not need to fear as we had Captain AK's name and permission.
How sweet to have everyday spiritual lessons as we go about our everyday tasks. God is alive and well. He is teaching us great and wonderful things about His kindness to us. What a grace gift to be given permission to meet the young doctor! How wonderful to have an escort, advocate!
We are privileged to be here in Niger! We are enjoying our days keeping our eyes and ears wide open to see the goodness and kindness of our great God and Savior.