Travel with me in your mind to the day of 9/11 or weeks and months afterwards. Everyone recalls exactly where they were and what they were doing that day. Think about the general mental climate across the U.S. and for the Arabic citizens of the U.S. Definitely, there was a climate uncertainty and fear in general along with sadness over people’s loss of lives, I have read books about families of Arabic descent who were peaceful, citizens of U.S. who had to go into hiding for an extended period of time. People judged them, shunned them, spoke against them because of their race.
My husband and I had tickets to fly to Kenya a few weeks after 9/11. This was a normal flight we made regularly to check on our people in Tharaka. We arrived in London as scheduled and were seated on our second eight-hour leg of the trip into Nairobi. We were in the middle section, one row from the front. My husband was on my right in an aisle seat and an Arabic lady on my left. Across the aisle from my husband was a young couple with a child about 2 years in fathers lap. I admit that I was slightly concerned that my neighbor was Arabic. Very quickly I could see that she was on a first time flight and very apprehensive about her environment. Using hand motions to communicate with her about plane activity seemed to ease her concerns. About halfway during the flight, the child across the aisle went limp in the fathers arms, the father hurried to the front for a stewardess to get help. My husband immediately followed to help. Excited announcements were made to get a doctor and helpers were moving about quickly. My neighbor was holding onto my arm with great concern, it was difficult to explain the activities and she was very uneasy. Another announcement was made that we were over a body of water and that it would be a while before we could land and get emergency help for the child. After about 45 minutes, we landed and an ambulance met the plane and took the child away for emergency care. It was announced later that the child was in stable condition at the hospital. When we were nearing Nairobi, paperwork was being given for us to fill out. My neighbor held hers up and shook her head that she could not do hers. My husband motioned that he would fill her’s out. Recognizing that she could not sign, he showed her where to put an “x". After landing we assisted her in finding the correct line for her Visa.
I was very convicted and repentant about my initial momentary thoughts about my neighbor during that flight. It has been a life lesson for me to not judge and to show mercy as Jesus told us to.
