We recently had the opportunity to go the UK to do a ministry tour. I was assisted by “Broken” our youth pastor @ Crossover. A ministry called “Lifeculture” from Oxford brought us over to do several events. Looking back in hindsight I can really see how God’s hand was on every step of the way - even when it seemed like things were going wrong. When I arrived at the airport in Tampa I realized I forgot my passport at home. Great way to start a trip… being that it was an hour before the flight left and we only live 15 minutes away, my wife rushed home to get it while I waited. It was bugged out as I couldn’t even check in my bags or get a boarding pass unless I had my passport present and I was only going to New York. I then had to switch airports and then fly to London. But, the computer knew the itinerary was international, so I couldn’t even get on the NY flight without my passport. My wife called me as soon as she had the numbers and I got them to desk and they punched it in. My boarding pass printed… then the clock switched to 29 minutes until my flight and the computer locked us out from printing my baggage stickers. For some reason they wouldn’t bend. I could have easily made the flight as Tampa airport is very fast to navigate through, but they refused. I was stuck. Soon I found out that Broken didn’t get on the flight because he didn’t see me. He came downstairs and we were both stuck with no flights to get to NY in time to make the London flight. Thank God there was this dude that worked for Delta that spent over half an hour getting us rerouted to fly to ATL and then fly directly to London. The only thing was we had to take separate flights. Broken was getting there 5 hours before me at a different airport. We didn’t care, at least we were now going to be able to make it and it didn’t cost anything extra.
One of my ministry friends from Tampa hit me up as he saw my tweet about going to the UK and he was like “I’m going to the UK this week too”. The crazy thing was… he was with me on the flight from ATL to London! What? We got to catch up and encourage each other. We landed at Heathrow in London and here’s where it gets interesting. Everyone waited in line at Customs for over a half an hour as there were hundreds of people lined up from different flights. Everyone was going through rather quickly, but they only had about 8 booths open. I finally got called to a booth and soon realized I was being profiled. Instead of 1 or 2 questions and a quick stamp it soon became 5 questions and then 10 questions and soon I knew this wasn’t good and the guy interviewing me didn’t like me and didn’t believe me. He wrote out a form that told me my passport was being held and I was being detained because my answers were not satisfactory. I was then taken to this holding area right next to the line where a few other people were sitting. Over an hour and a half later someone finally came to get me to search my luggage. After they went through all my bags they took me through a maze of doors with key pads. I then arrived at the detainment area and had to sign in, empty my pockets and get patted down. Then they took me to get mug shots and fingerprints. I was now officially in the UK’s system of people to watch out for - lol. Then they took me to the holding area where I sat with 5 other guys. 3 were named Mohammed (1 from Africa, 2 from middle east) and 2 other dudes from the US. As we sat there we heard the conversations from the interrogation rooms as there was quite a bit of yelling going on. This wasn’t reassuring to me, but I stayed calm and continued to pray and ask God why I was in this situation. He gave me peace and told me to go and pray with this other guy that was from the US. I went over and started talking with him and he opened up how he was trying to come over the UK to start over as he was hustling in the streets at home and had nothing to go back to. I asked him if I could pray with him and he said yes. I noticed Mohammed from Africa staring as we bowed our heads.
After that there was lots of waiting… over 3 more hours of it with no contact with the outside world. Finally it was time for my interview and thank God it was someone new that looked like she had just come on shift. I prayed God would help us connect and that I’d have favor. We ended up having a great interview and she was real cool. She wasn’t a Christian, but she respected what I did and she knew I was being honest. She explained to me that the main thing that was now up in the air was that because I was coming to do an event that I needed a work permit and an invite letter (which I had neither). She said they can’t really bend the rules, but she’d take my case to the head of customs. About an hour later was falling asleep on the bench when she tapped the window. She motioned me to come out in the lobby and she said to me, “I don’t know what to tell you, but I guess God was on your side.” The head of customs made an exception to let me in, but that I couldn’t come back in the future if I didn’t have all the right paperwork as I was now in their system. They signed me out and I got my stuff and they walked me back through the maze and I was now free… after 6 hours I could now contact everyone and let them know I was safe! I found out there were dozens of people on both sides of the ocean that found out that I had gone missing and were praying. I connected with Martin and the Lifeculture crew and found Broken and we were on our way to an incredible weekend of ministry!
Yes, I was detained, but throughout the experience God gave me peace and I was not deterred from why I was there and knowing that God is sovereign! So whatever you might be going through - remember God is in control. Broken and I had an incredible weekend of ministry: speaking at the Unorthodox Conference on Friday, to the Men’s Breakfast on Saturday, to the outreach (Barton Bash), to the ministry on Sunday at Oxford Bible Church. There were so many great people that we connected with that weekend. Each evening the crew from Lifeculture took us to one of their houses and over 20 of us ate together and just fellowshipped for hours talking about ministry, family and life. Although it was a short trip we soon became very close with these precious brothers and sisters in Christ. I often travel and that kind of connection is rare! I can see why the enemy wanted to try to keep us out or try to discourage us - but we pushed through with God’s help and had an amazing weekend to build God’s kingdom! Big shout out to the entire Lifeculture crew! We’ll see you soon!
Check out the highlight video from the UK trip at: youtube.com/urband813
