With snow already having closed some airports the prospect of flying north to Scotland in early March was less than appealing. However the invitation had come from Kerry Dixon who I used to meet with in inspiration/accountability group. We had not seen each other for about 10 years. Kerry began ‘Signpost International ‘which had grown considerably under his leadership. In new premises in an inner city part of Dundee, Kerry was keen to have me come and share insights in mission in an inner city context, with a view to some ongoing training and equipping. I was looking forward to catching up with him and learning about leadership of a new trust!

The day’s adventure started however on the flight from Manchester to Edinburgh….

Boarding the plane I had that funny feeling that I had the opportunity of a significant conversation with the person next to me. Nothing certain - just a gut instinct that I took to be the whisper of the Holy Spirit. I knew that it was my choice. Engage with God in the process, or hide and read a book. I was feeling somewhat inspired as I had recently been meditating on the idea of Jesus living his life through us. So my job as not to strive but relax, and let him do just that.

The forty-minute conversation proved to be a potential life changing moment for the lady I sat next to.

I started just by asking her about herself. It turned out that this was her last flight to Edinburgh as she had just handed her notice in at work. I had to tell me big mouth to shut up and listen and just listen to her, rather than jump in with quick answers. ‘Turns out her daughters were at the leaving home stage, so she was taking a month off to review life. She did not need so much money now and was tired of getting up at “stupid O’clock and going to bed at stupid O’clock. (A wonderful expression). She was a single Mum and we talked about the hopes and fears of parenthood in a pretty honest way with each other. Eventually, she asked what I did (after quite a while). I said was leading a training day for people who wanted to make a difference in a tough community, motivated by a strong faith. It turns out she had a vague catholic influence as a child but that was years ago and any contact with the church since then, around marriage and divorce, had been pretty negative.

I then covered some Rhythm-of-Life stuff with her, following the stupid O’clock stuff, which she really liked. She then asked whether I had thought that Jesus was just made up by clever people. I assured her that as an historical fact, a person, Jesus of Nazareth had both existed, and been of considerable influence. The issues were more around whether he was who he claimed to be, and his followers claimed him to be.

This was new information, which she thought interesting. I then asked her my million-dollar question. I told her that I believed that many people had odd, or God type ’spiritual’ experiences. I thought these were very common and that people rarely talked about them, as it might be embarrassing. Had she had any of these?

“Oh definitely” was her reply. She then related how as a teenager, some 30 years ago, she had been on a school trip to a monastery type place, and heard the monks talking about their life and God. She had then gone to the toilet, burst into tears, and cried for half an hour.

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