duty free at airports

From Every Walk Of Life

My first local work was in Tupelo, Oklahoma. The town had a population of just over 500, and likely this little community has not grown much in the past thirty years; in fact, it may very well have shrunk due to the by-pass that was constructed around the town some years back. Most of the folks in that part of the world grew up in Oklahoma, and many of them had never traveled more than a couple of hundred miles from home. The extent of their travels was to neighboring counties, with an occasional excursion to another state for a family visit. Consequently, social contacts were mostly with folks of their same dialect, same interests, and same cultural background as their own. Beyond the boarders of their small town and/or neighboring states is a world so "unlike" the small world in which they live.

My first experience with travel outside my own little "world" was when I left home to join the Coast Guard. Since that time my travels have taken me to places I never dreamed that I would go, or visit places the likes of which I have been to in the past twenty-five years or so. Air travel has introduced the globe traveler to what has come to be known as "air-travel-hubs." These are the larger, centrally located cities in various parts of the world where major routes dump their travelers for connecting flights to remote areas not serviced by these major routes. One thing I have learned after dozens of trips to various parts of the world is that you can meet folks from virtually every walk of life at these major airport hubs. My recent trip took me through Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In fact, much of this article is being written as I sit in a chair awaiting my flight to DFW International Airport. On my way to India I landed in mid morning here at Dubai and barely had time to get to my gate before boarding and subsequent departure. My return trip on October 2nd landed me in Dubai at 11:00 p.m. My final leg home was not scheduled to leave until 3:00, so I had a little time to wander the corridors of Dubai International Airport. One would think that at 2:00 a.m. in the morning the halls would be empty and the shops closed; wrong! This international "hub" was as crowded as DFW at noon the day before Thanksgiving; perhaps even more. The shops were jammed with travelers who had more money than common sense. I have never understood why anyone would pay the prices charged in these airport shops. Some years ago I stepped into one of those airport "malls" just to get a glimpse at the prices. Perfume: $100 a bottle. Men's Arrow shirt (one that you can buy at Sears for $25 or so) sold for $85.00. Why would anyone buy a suit in an international airport shop at a cost of three times what you could get one at Men's Warehouse? Electronics, including laptops, cell phones, ipads and ipods-all were overpriced. I have concluded that if a merchant puts up a sign that reads "duty free" folks will somehow think they are getting a real bargain. But, that is the subject for another article.

With the time I had I thought I would get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks (not that I frequent Starbucks; I just don't like their coffee that much). Before I left home someone had given me a gift card for Starbucks. When the clerk told me they did not take gift cards, and when I calculated the cost of a single cup of coffee in dollars rather than United Arab currency, I decided that $5 for a cup of coffee was just too much. So I purchased a bottle of water in a little shop, and sat down and observed the people around me. There were, literally, people from every walk of life. Across the table to my left I noticed two men who looked like they must have grown up in San Francisco during the Hippie craze. Adjacent to my table I noticed a couple from some oriental country; Korea, Japan, or perhaps even Viet Nam. I saw the well dressed, and the not-so-well dressed. There were young; there were old. There were some very alert, and energetic; and there were others, like myself, who had been awake for almost 24 hours (or longer), and given the opportunity, could easily slip off into dream land at the blink of an eye. There were the sober; there were drunkards. There were the polite and the impolite; the friendly and the not so friendly. Yes, there were folks from every walk of life about me. Looking out into the corridor from where I sat, as far as one could see there were masses of people, all going somewhere or heading home from some far away destination. I have often found myself asking, "Were the Lord to come today, how many of these precious souls would be gathered with the saints to meet our Lord in the air? How many of them would enjoy the beauties of heaven, and the joy of hearing their Lord say to them, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joys prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" On the other hand, how many of these precious souls will never even hear the gospel message? How many of them, given the opportunity, would be interested in the least of hearing of what awaits all mankind when our Lord comes again? And even as I ask that question, I am cognizant of the answer.

Most of the people sitting around me would reach their destination within a few short hours; some perhaps in a day or so. But in the twinkling of an eye, as a tale that is told, every single one of those who are presently enjoying some snack as they await their connecting flight will eventually reach their eternal destiny as well. Heaven will be the home of the faithful; hell the eternal misery of the lost.

As each one now picks up their bags, and disposes of the trays, scraps, and sacks in the various dispensers about the food court, and begin moving toward their connecting flight one wonders what tomorrow will bring. I too, would soon be making my way to my gate to board my flight home. As I made my way to gate 32 I was reminded that people come from all walks of life. Our challenge is to walk along side and try to point the way to Jesus. 

--by Tom Wacaster

What does the Bible say about elders??

Qualifications of Elders

    When Jesus first established His church, the apostles were the entire leadership staff. They did everything - tending to the spiritual oversight of the church in Jerusalem, engaging in the benevolent program, doing the preaching and teaching, taking care of the nursery - everything. God did not intend for the church to be guided permanently by the apostles.

    In writing to Timothy (1 Tim. 3), Paul give Christ’s church the qualifications He wants in a man to serve as an elder. Let’s take a new look at these requirements.

THE NEED FOR DESIRE - 3:1:

    The word “aspire” (orego) means “to eagerly desire to accomplish some goal or purpose.” The connotation is that of reaching out your hand to grasp. But, of course, we’re not talking about the kind of aspiring to leadership that you would find in the corporate world (Matt. 20:25-28).

    The office of elder is a leadership position but he is a servant leader. Somebody has to make the decisions in realms that God has left to the discretion of the individual congregation.

    In order for a man to be an elder, to put it simply, he needs to be a leader. He needs to lead through his behavior; he needs to lead his family; and, through his example, he needs to lead his community…

A LEADER IN HIS MORAL BEHAVIOR - 3:2-3:

    First, let us point out the word “must” (dei), shows that these are not optional or recommendations. You must be able to say, “Yes, this man meets these qualifications.”

    To understand these different qualifications, it is helpful to just look at how they are translated in various translations.

A LEADER IN THE HOME - 3:4-5:

    Not only must he be married, but an elder also must have children and (Titus 1:6) Christian children.

    The reason he needs to be a family man in order to be an elder is given in verse 5. How can he manage a congregation of believers from diverse backgrounds if he cannot manage his own children who have similar backgrounds? Thus, the home is the laboratory for leadership in the church.

A LEADER OF EXPERIENCE - 3:6:

    The church in Ephesus had been in existence for about a dozen years by the time Paul writes Timothy. These may be replacing some of those elders.

    An elder should not be a “new convert.” The position of an elder can give one a sense of superiority and dominance over the congregation and if a man is not mature and experienced in his Christianity, he may fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.

A LEADER IN THE COMMUNITY - 3:7:

    Finally, a man who is to be a leader in the church ought to also have the respect of men in the community. He is to have a good reputation with those outside the church.

    Over the past twenty years, I have been blessed to serve under seven elderships and the vast majority of those men were just what Paul describes in 1 Timothy 3. Such men should be encouraged, supported, emulated, prayed for, and blessed in their work by our own loving submission to their leadership.

--Paul Holland

The Number Thirteen

For some unknown reason to this scribe, the number thirteen has come to be associated with bad luck. In order to avoid the undesirable, superstitious people will go out of their way to circumvent anything that has to do with the number thirteen. In my travels to various parts of the world I have noticed that some elevators do not have the number 13, and the floor following the twelfth is actually called the fourteenth floor. Of course just calling something by a different name does not change what it is. For example, a teacher once asked his class, "If a dog has four legs, and I call one of the legs his tail, how many legs would he have?" The class responded, "Three legs." The teacher answered, "No, he would still have four legs because just calling a leg a tail does not make it so." In the same manner, just calling the thirteenth floor the fourteenth floor does not somehow make it the fourteenth floor. It is still the thirteenth floor and all the arguing to the contrary will not change reality.

My passport contains a number of visas [not the credit card, but travel permits to various countries], and if I have calculated correctly this is my thirteenth trip into India, my first being in 2004, with two trips on some of the intervening years. Were I of a superstitious nature (which I am not) I could provide you with a string of "incidents" that have occurred since late last week that would confirm my belief that the number thirteen is truly synonymous with bad luck. On Saturday September 13th the pilots in Paris went on strike and international flights on KLM Airlines were being delayed, and eventually cancelled [KLM is the partner with Delta for European connecting flights]. My fight to India on Monday would take me through (you guessed it) Paris. Late Sunday evening when I got home from services I received a call from Delta informing me that the flight from Paris to Bangalore had been cancelled. I did not want to arrive into Paris and have to live in the terminal for who knows how long. So I spent a couple of hours Sunday evening scrambling to book a flight on Emirates Airlines to Bangalore. After I was assured by Delta that the full amount would be credited to my account, I completed the payment for the Emirates tickets. Yesterday (Saturday) I received an email from Delta showing the full amount of refund, and the difference between Delta and Emirates was a savings of - get this - $13 and some odd cents (actually it was closer to $14, but I'll use a preacher count here for sake of illustration). There is that pesky number 13 again. Was this to be an omen of things to come?

In preparing for my trip on Monday the 15th, I packed my bags, and without paying attention I locked my wallet with all the travel papers, money, etc. in my check in baggage. After Robert and Michael Berry dropped me off at the airport, I got in line to check in and when I opened my briefcase I discovered that I did not have my wallet. Talk about panic! I borrowed a phone and quickly made a call to Robert and told him to head for my house and I would contact Johnnie Ann. When I unpacked all my bags in search of my wallet, I discovered my mistake. Was this another omen that my 13th trip to India would be plagued with bad luck? Hey, there's more. When we arrived in Dubai, my flight from Dubai to Bangalore departed from gate 13 [my boarding pass read gate 11, but as it typical, original gate assignments have a tendency to change just prior to departure; fortunately this was only two gates off], and the boarding time was 1300 hours. It was uncanny how the number 13 kept cropping up, so when they called for boarding of zone "C" [that how they board now; not by rows, but by zones], I got in line, and counted how many were in front of me. 12! That makes me number 13! Well, the omens were piling up. Maybe I should get out of line and spend a night in Dubai to avoid the inevitable bad luck. But I pressed on. The flight to Bangalore took 3 hours and 13 minutes, the baggage claim at Bangalore airport was number 13, and when I got to custom clearance I got the custom agent at booth 13, and the cost of my first meal in India at St. Marks was just over 1300 Rupees! All of this on my 13th mission trip to India.

While some might worry about such repeated appearances of the number 13, I'm most happy to know that my life is not controlled by such random incidents that are determined by some string of numbers that may happen to keep popping up. Instead, my life is guided and directed by a loving God Who providentially cares for me. All the hoopla over the number 13 is just that - "hoopla." Merriam-Webster on line defines hoopla as "talk or writing that is designed to get people excited about and interested in something." Unfortunately all the talk about the number 13 gets people unduly and overly excited. No wonder there is such as absence of peace and serenity in the lives the present generation.

Oh, by the way. This 13th trip into India is proving to be just as profitable a harvest of lost souls as any of the twelve previous. I wouldn't call that good luck. It's not luck at all. It is, rather, a demonstration of the power of the gospel when planted into the soil of a good and honest heart. 

by Tom Wacaster