Bangkok airport turmoil strands World Racers
Turmoil strands native of SpringsNovember 28, 2008 – 9:49 PMTHE GAZETTE
A Colorado Springs native was stuck in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday while anti-government demonstrators held control of the city’s major airports.
Alison Page, 23, is in Thailand as part of an 11-month mission trip with a Christian ministry called The World Race. Her mother, Tammy Page, said Friday her daughter is in no danger. Alison Page was scheduled to leave Bangkok on Wednesday and arrive Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa, her mother said.
The protests shut down air traffic in the city and left thousands of travelers stranded.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Friday “security forces will use peaceful means” to end the crisis, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday advised U.S. citizens to stay away from the airports and on Friday issued a statement urging peaceful resolution.
“I was just glad she wasn’t at the airport, because who knows where that could go,” Tammy Page said of her daughter.
Alison Page posted an update to her online blog on Wednesday assuring readers she and the four other members of her team, 5-Alive, were OK.
“We are actually located very far from the protest and would be completely unaffected by the chaos if it were not for our scheduled flight to South Africa,” she wrote.
Alison Page graduated from Rampart High School in 2003 and from Western State College last year, her mother said. She later moved to Crested Butte.
She left on the mission trip June 28 and will return at the end of May. The trip involves visiting 11 countries. While in Thailand, Alison Page has been working with a ministry called the Tamar Center, which offers job training and Bible instruction to prostitutes, according to its Web page.
On a short stopover in Thailand in September, her blog writing showed she was deeply affected after speaking with two prostitutes.
“What does (a) white girl from America know about their pain and loss? What do I know about their lives? I can’t relate to them in any way at all. God is faithful and created each person in that awful disturbing place to be loved, just as he created me to be loved. He created them for greatness too. The reality is, most of them may never make it out of that place. God is sovereign; I have to trust that. We all do.”
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When I read the Wednesday Blog – Learning how to Trust God, my first reaction was to imagine myself in that airport, hoping this will soon be over… I would have called my wife and told her what I would love for dinner…
My maturity and spirituality would have been thoroughly tested by today. If God wanted to teach me a lesson on Trusting Him, by now, the class would have ended if I was still in that airport or even in Bangkok for that matter. I would have had it!!
The topic- Learning How to Trust God, is a brutal one for this season for all those stranded in Bangkok.
I pray for you all that God will achieve His aim with your patience, your love and your faith. I pray that the peace of Christ will truly rule your hearts and totally affect your mood for Jesus’ sake. May you take advantage of this time to bring glory to God. It will really hurt the devil if you are able to make disciples under this circumstance. Please be strong for weak souls like us.
I’m praying for you all.
I wonder how this post relates to the recent post on God’s timing… I mean, I always look at things from my middle-class American attitude and say “things will look up”.
Then I look at some of my dear brothers and sisters being trafficked for worse or worser purposes and ask “will things look up for them?”
Is there something in God’s timing for those suffering short of death?
I want to believe there is… at least within the system they are in. I recently told a friend that a blessing for me in my system may be enough money to buy insurance so I can have a surgery… for someone in the sex slave trade maybe it is access to cocaine or a drug that can limit the reality of hell they are experiencing.
So I believe God’s timing for those in immense suffering is good and that His intentions are good, but I guess I am afraid I am looking at God through my middle class world and thinking that I am looking at God through the eyes of THE world.
What could a Thai prostitute teach me about God’s timing?