Traveling lessons

Nothing like the school of hard knocks to get an education. My son Mert nearly has his master’s degree in air travel. At 18, he flew for the first time. “I was sitting in the Little Rock Airport waiting for my flight. I did not realize you had to line-up before getting on the plane. I did not notice the calls for passengers until someone called my name. They were ready to close the door and needed me to board.” Then he had courses about inspections before boarding the plane. Traveling with other students in Russia, he went through Moscow wearing work boots with steel toes. While the rest of the group waited, the KGB type inspectors took him into the inspection room and patted him down. “I have learned to wear shoes without any metal, shoes that are easy to slip on and off.”Mert wearied of taking off his shoes for the TSA inspections. “I got TSA pre-screen so I would not have to take off my shoes and could get through faster.”Worked great, until the TSA pre-screen line was the longest line. “Before they released me to board the plane, I went through the personal metal protector three times. First, I had a belt on. Then, it was a piece of paper in my back pocket. They patted me down two times. Lightly the first time and more thoroughly the second time. The piece of paper disrupted the contours of the body in the scanner.” Before his most recent trip he received several bottles of Turkish seasoning. He did not need that many. He decided give them to folks he visited. The TSA folks pulled out the four bottles of seasoning he had packed. “The agent called an explosives expert to test the substances. While we waited for him to come, the agent thoroughly inspected everything in my suitcase and backpack. I had to repack it.”The explosive agent came with a tray of test papers and chemicals. I learned he had served in the military in the Mid-east wars where he learned to be an explosive expert. Every International airport has to have one. He had his testing kit. First he sprinkled a little bit of the Turkish seasoning on two different test papers. Then he used tinctures from six or seven different bottles and added drops to each. As we talked he said he had been at the Delta Terminal because most of the international flights go through Delta.” Of course, the seasoning tested safe to travel. Besides learning to line up to board, and how to dress for success with the TSA, he also learned to be careful what he says. “I have gone to Canada a few times. One time after 9-11, I had materials for Praying Through the Arabia Peninsula (PTAP). When they saw the material, they took me to an inspector who interviewed me. We had a thorough discussion about why I had a desire to tell Muslims about Jesus. He was a Buddhist who did not believe anyone needed to hear about Jesus.” Another time he headed just across the border to meet an elderly missionary to give him some gospel booklets to reach Muslims. “Crossing the border I was asked if I had any dangerous weapons. I said, ‘nothing more dangerous than the Bible.’ For that I got to meet all the inspection crew in Canada. They checked out my trunk, my backpack and interviewed me. When they saw I was really just coming to talk with people about Jesus they let me go.” Not a chemical test, but definitely a test of his determination to be faithful.