When the family came over for dinner a few weeks ago, everyone wanted to hear that part of the story.
What I was feeling. Wasn’t I scared. Did I have any idea the gun wouldn’t go off. How did I ever get to be so brave.
Really, the answer to all those questions is simple.
I knew Willow wasn’t saved, which meant that I couldn’t stand by and watch her die. Not while I had the chance to do something to help her.
The news articles and blog posts tell me I preached for five or ten minutes with the hijacker’s gun pointed at my head. I’m afraid I don’t remember that part either, so I can’t give you many details about what I said.
But I know people have read about me in the news. At one point there was even speculation that I might be an angel because apparently nobody could find me when the airport security folks were conducting their interviews after we landed. There’s actually a really good reason for that.
Nobody told me I needed to stick around, and I wasn’t injured at all, so I decided that what I really needed was a good night’s rest. I got off the plane and found myself a quiet gate in the airport, and I napped until the next morning. Then I woke myself up and talked with a sweet young man serving coffee at a little donut shop whose wife is expecting their very first baby, a tiny boy with Down’s syndrome, but that’s a story for another day.
I don’t like the fact that my actions on Flight 219 have been turned into something spectacular. It wasn’t that at all. But I do know people want to hear my side of the story, and since I can’t remember at all what I said or felt while I was trying to talk the gunman down, let me tell you about my prayers for him since then.
I don’t believe in praying for the dead. That’s just superstitious mumbo-jumbo. General died in the fire. I know some people are upset he won’t face the American justice system, but I’m certain that God’s justice is quite a bit more powerful and to be feared.
So I don’t bother praying for General, not because I don’t care about him or the state of his soul when he passed, but because he’s already gone. He had his chance on earth to get right with God. And who knows? Maybe he did right before he drew his last breath. We won’t know about that until we reach heaven.
But I do pray for General’s kids. They’re so young still. It’s not their fault their father took over an airplane and murdered those innocent people. Unfortunately, I worry that General’s children will blame themselves since after all it was their school General was so upset about.
I guess if anything good has come from this, it’s that the Detroit school district has closed down Brown Elementary. The students enrolled there are currently being taught in trailers at nearby schools, but plans are underway for a new building, funded mostly by private donations.
I’m thankful for that much at least. But it’s such a shame the way it all came about, isn’t it?
So I’ve added General’s children to my daily prayer list. I pray that God would give them maturity beyond their years to see and understand that their father loved them, but he needed help. Like I said, I don’t pay much attention to news reports, but there’ve been quite a bit of rumblings about General’s mental health. Who knows? With the right doctors and a lot of prayer, maybe he could have run for mayor of Detroit or gotten himself elected superintendent himself and brought about change for his children in a much more positive way.
It’s too late for anything like that to happen now, though.
And so I pray. Day in, day out. When I can’t sleep, I make my way down to my prayer room. Sit in my rocking chair, talking to God.
I talk to him about the passengers I met on that flight. The mother in the long skirt who took her children off the plane. The mom traveling with that sweet little boy. That studious college student Kennedy and her blue-haired best friend.
I pray for them all.
I pray for God to cover over the fear and the trauma they endured on that flight.
I pray for the Almighty to wash over them with his peace that surpasses all understanding.
I read Psalm 91 and I pray the verses over them. Pray that God would protect them, that he would be with them in trouble, that he will deliver them and show them his salvation.
And I pray for you too, my sweet and faithful reader. I pray that your heart and soul today would be filled with the riches and fulness of God’s grace. I pray that he would open the eyes of your heart so that you might grasp and understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep is his amazing love for you.
I pray that he will sustain you through sadness and sickness and trials, and that when you reach the last chapter of your life on God’s beautiful earth, you’ll be able to say with confidence along with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
That is my prayer for you, and that’s what I ask God on your behalf each and every time I talk with him.
But that’s a story for another day.
***
From Alana: Thanks so much for joining me on this journey.
The idea for the Turbulent Skies Christian Thriller novellas came to me over three years ago, when I was flying to California to visit my grandparents.
I was people-watching on the plane (as authors tend to do), trying to come up with backstories for each of the passengers. It was both awe-inspiring and a little overwhelming to realize that God knew every single person on that plane (and their stories) so intimately.
I tucked the idea for a thriller series set on a hijacked airplane in the back of my head and focused on other novels.
Grandma Lucy was first introduced in the book Turbulence, which is book 5 in the Kennedy Stern Christian suspense series, my most popular collection of novels to date. This book gives the story of Flight 219 from Kennedy’s perspective as she’s traveling to Alaska with her best friend Willow.
Grandma Lucy’s character is based in large part on my own grandmother, who was raised as a missionary kid in Shanghai and who returned to China multiple times to smuggle Bibles. My grandmother died the week before I started writing Turbulence. I thought that basing a character on this prayer warrior would be a neat way to commemorate her, and I know if she were still alive, she’d get a kick out of reading about herself in my books.
I’m so thankful for the legacy of prayer and evangelism and missions my Grandma not only lived but passed down the generations, and I know my life has been irrevocably blessed by all her prayers for me and my family. The world lost a tremendous prayer warrior the day my grandma died, which is one reason why it’s always so special for me whenever I get the chance to write about her in some of my novels.
Grandma Lucy also plays a large part in the Orchard Grove books. These are different than my typical Christian suspense novels and fall more into the women’s fiction category. In the Orchard Grove series, three young women attend a church service where Grandma Lucy offers the closing prayer. Each one of these women is impacted by her words in a significant yet different way.
If you haven’t read the Kennedy Stern Christian suspense series yet, where Grandma Lucy is first introduced and where Kennedy and her roommate Willow experience dangerous encounters that test their faith and keep readers turning pages WAY past their bedtime, grab the first three novels in the Kennedy Stern series on sale now.
Dive into the Kennedy Stern series today! … Or keep reading for a sneak peek from Turbulence, the Kennedy Stern novel where Kennedy and Willow first meet Grandma Lucy on Flight 219.