I Was a Stranger

I was a stranger in a strange land. I was lost and tired, alone and worn down. I thought of giving up and then something happened that I don’t fully understand to this very day.

It was January 5th 1986 and I was launching my own independence. Having attended college close to home I was venturing into a seminary that was across the country I packed up all my worldly possessions and my father drove me to the Atlanta airport at five o’clock in the morning. I got on a plane headed for San Francisco for my whole new adventure in life.

I knew in five hours I would begin that adventure. A representative from the seminary was to meet me there and take me to my new home. Not only was I beginning a new path in my seminary training but for the very first time in my life I was there on my own. That was my journey and there was only one detail between me and that destination and that was the Dallas airport where I was to have a quick change of planes; but you know what they say, “The Devil is in the details.”

While we were in route to Dallas a thick fog settled on that airport and it was closed down. Scores of planes that were headed for Dallas, including ours, were rerouted to Lubbock Texas. Now the small airport there was totally unprepared for the role now thrust upon it to be a major hub and transfer point. Chaos reigned in that airport. I sat in the Lubbock airport for more than eight hours. I was finally put on a plane, not headed for San Francisco but instead for Los Angeles where I waited another three hours before I boarded a plane for San Francisco.

Finally I got there very late at night. What was suppose to be a five hour journey had turned out to be a fifteen- hour journey. The seminary representative was long gone. There I was in the airport feeling lost. I had no idea how to get to the seminary. No idea what bus to take or what stop to get off at. and the worse thing of all was that my luggage was nowhere in sight. I had only the clothes on my back.

I was so tired. My food intake for that entire day could be measured in peanuts. I was afraid my worldly possessions would not be found again. Worse of all, for the first time in my life, I felt totally alone, no one to turn too, no one to call, no one to help me. I felt so despondent that I began contemplating taking a flight back to Atlanta. But then I heard an announcement and my name.

“Delta Airlines,” it said, “paging passenger Paul Kerbas. Please report to the agent at the courtesy desk.” That couldn’t be my name, I thought, perhaps I misheard it. The message was repeated. It was my name. I went to the desk and said, “I’m Paul Kerbas.”

The agent said, “That woman over there is looking for you.”

I looked over and saw her. She was a kind looking woman in her early fifties. I walked over to her and said, “I’M Paul Kerbas.”

“Oh Paul, “ she said, “you must be so tired. What a journey you have been on. I suspect you are very hungry and it doesn’t look like your luggage is coming until much later tonight. My husband and I live pretty close to the airport. We have been putting off dinner until you came, Why don’t you come to our house, eat dinner with us and rest in our guest room and then I will bring you back to the airport later tonight to check on your luggage.”

I was so surprised. I asked, “How did you know about me?”

She said, “Paul one thing you will learn is that here at the seminary we are a caring community.”

We drove to her house, a lovely home on a steep street in San Francisco. I enjoyed a perfectly hot meal that just hit the spot. I went into her guest room and fell asleep for an hour or two. At about 11 p.m. that night she brought me back to the airport and sure enough the luggage was there. She set me on the right bus and told me what stop to get off at. And as quickly as she had entered my life she disappeared. And I got back on my journey, no longer feeling tired, hungry and alone. I felt renewed, refreshed and wondering perhaps- had I been touched by an angel.

Now twenty years later I can’t tell you anything more about that woman.I could not trace her at all. No one in the seminary could tell me her name and to this day she remains a mystery. I am left to wonder if she was a kind hearted soul who reached out to me in need or is it possible on my bumpy road to seminary an angel paved the way?

Dr. Paul Kirbas,
Sarasota, Fl.