We had planned our trip for months. Our wives had looked at all the options for the cruise as well as the places we would visit during our trip to Alaska. This would be our 25th anniversary trip and Russell and Tammy’s 20th anniversary trip. It was going to be glorious. Having been to Alaska once before, we could hardly wait to return. For weeks we had been preparing, deciding what clothes to wear, which cameras to take, which places we would see, and what excursions to enjoy. With the heightened security and our decision to start our trip in Vancouver, we even got our travel documents together weeks in advance.

    During the preparation, Donna, suggested that I put my passport in with the other documentation for the trip. I preferred to keep it with the traveling pouch I normally take on all my trips and keep in my backpack or brief case when I travel. After all, I was the experienced international traveler.

    “Okay,” she said, “But just don’t lose it!”

    “I won’t,” I assured her as I reached into the drawer with the maps, information, and passports. I grabbed the passport and put in my travel pouch containing ear plugs, emergency travel medication, and few other necessities for long flights and international travel.

    The morning came to leave. We went to the early service at church, met our friends in the parking lot, loaded up their parent’s van, and their dad drove us to the airport. We arrived at the ticket counter 100 minutes before departure. Everything was working like clockwork. Then I stepped to the counter and handed the passport to the American Airline’s representative.

    Trying to be as considerate as possible, she looked at the picture in the passport and gently said, “This must an older passport.” It wasn’t. It was my son’s passport. I had blindly picked up my son’s passport. I didn’t know we still had his passport since he was married and had moved away. But there was no time to worry about that, how was I going to get home (normally a 40 minute drive one way) and back in time to board the plane?

    “I’ll see you in you Vancouver if you can make it,” Donna semi-jokingly chided. (It was the only negative thing she said about my boneheaded move the whole trip!) I told them to go ahead, check in, and fly out if necessary. I would find a way back to the house and catch another flight if necessary and if possible.

    I called our friends’ dad. Jim headed back to the airport to rescue me. I paced and worried waiting on the curb for him to get there. Finally! Jim, pulled up and I jumped in the van and we headed back to the house. It would be close.

    Then I realized that I had no keys to get into the house and our daughter was in Bible Class at church. I called and the phone at church rang... and rang... and rang... I fidgeted and paced and worried. Finally, someone answered. Yes, they would go look for Megan. Eight agonizing minutes later, Megan picked up the phone. She headed home to go look for my passport and birth certificate.

    Of course I agonized over every red light. I tried to stay patient. When we got close to the house I called and they had found the documents. We drove by, rolled down the window, and they handed them to me.

    “You owe me big, dad,” Megan jokingly said with a wry smile as we drove away.

    “Yeah, I know,” I genuinely replied.

Everything looked great until...

    We made good time getting back to the airport and everything looked great until... “I think we’re going to make just fine!” Then I looked up. “Oh no! The cars are backed up a mile on both the freeway and the access road,” I said as we rounded the bend near the airport. We could see the airport stacked up and not moving. “What are we going to do? We’re so close, but there is no way we’re going to make it. We can’t make it around this!”

    “Don’t worry, I used to come out to this airport when it was an Air Force base,” Jim said, “We’ll take this back road and I think I can get us in.”

    Meanwhile Russell called me on the mobile phone. “It will be tight and the security check-in is packed,” he said, “But, if you turn right at the very first entrance into the airport, there is a second security check point and they are training folks and they said they would check you through. There is no line and it comes out right by our gate!”

    It worked. I even had to wait a few minutes to board. Whew! Was that close.

    After we boarded the plane, there was that awkward silence that goes with a boneheaded move, but no one wants to say anything ugly about it. As we sat there waiting for the plane to be pushed off and fly away, it hit me once again.

    I’m no self-made man. What I have, how I’ve been blessed, and what I have achieved has been through the help of friends and family. In both big and small ways, friends have blessed my life, given me my opportunities, helped me past my failures, and bailed me out when I’ve “goobered up” in life. None of us makes it in life on his own. None of us makes it to heaven alone. We will all get there because of the help of friends, loved ones, and spiritual family.

    Trying to do it by ourselves simply isn’t the passport to get us where we want to go. We won’t make it without the help of our friends. Thank God for friends!

 

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Title: "Not Without the Help of Friends"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: July 8, 2002