A few days ago I returned to Hong Kong from Los Angeles. It was anything but your average normal flight. I’ve been re-living those agonizing moments ever since. Here’s what happened.

About four hours after takeoff, the meal service completed, I pushed my seat back to the furthest possible recline and was settling in for some ‘easy listenin’ over my headset. Just then a flight attendant came by and leaned across me. She had come by earlier to post a `meal later` sticker on the seat beside me in which an elderly Japanese man was sleeping soundly; his forehead resting against his hand.

“Sumi ma sen!” “Excuse me!” she said in Japanese shaking his arm lightly. He slept on. “Sumi ma sen, sumi ma sen!!” she persisted touching him more forcefully to see if he was ready for something to eat. Still no response.

After what seemed like a very long two minutes of this, she checked his pulse. Nothing.

“I think he’s !” she gasped. At least that’s what I think she said because passengers all around me popped out of their seats or craned their necks to get a better look. Next she tilted his head back and now we both could see he was ashen grey, his eyes rolled back inside his head.

I quickly undid my seat belt and jumped out of our row to give more room. The flight attendant ran to the PA and called out “EMERGENCY, WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY ON BOARD ~ ANY DOCTOR OR MEDICAL PERSONNEL ON BOARD PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

Within seconds, a number of persons responded. In addition to the purser, it looked like the entire flight crew, minus the pilots, had assembled. I was trying to give them as much room to maneuver as possible, so I couldn’t see clearly what happened next.

It was a short little Japanese lady in jeans and T shirt who brought him back to life. What a relief to see color coming back into his face, the ly grey turning to a yellow once again.

Next, a young Japanese doctor took over administering oxygen. Directly over the seat where I had previously been reclining for ‘easy listenin’ , there now hung an intravenous bag. The gentleman was laid out across the three seats and for the next hour I stood just a few feet away silently praying for him and for those who were attending him.

When my daughter Andrea had dropped me off at curbside check- in at LAX just hours before, I remember she had prayed that I would be seated next to the right person. How thankful I was that I could do my part in the team of those seeing his return to life.

What struck me as so bizarre throughout the whole incident were the responses of those around me. Yes, there were the curiosity seekers, but for the most part, the other flight attendants just kept on about their duties as they are trained to do, yet one of them even came up to me in the middle of the emergency to offer me a tray of snacks!

The entire incident hasn’t left my thoughts as I said earlier and especially now with Easter approaching this weekend, I have been thinking much more about life and ~ the fragility of the one and the finality of the other ~ at least for non-believers. The title of Francis Shaeffer’s book “How Shall We Then Live?” has also come to mind. After all, the JOY and HOPE we have because of Jesus’ and resurrection should be what distinguishes us from every other belief.

How do you think for example, this elderly man’s family responded as they heard the story of his mid-air passage from life to and back to life again?

“Oh, that’s nice!” as they brushed their teeth, drank their coffee or resumed reading their newspapers. I think NOT!!!

Yet, isn’t that too often exactly the indifferent casual way so many respond to the Easter Story? But what the Bible recorded was not just a story. Listen to the eye witness account of Matthew in Chapter 28:5 of this ‘gospel’ (which by the way means “Good News”):

“Don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here! He has been raised from the just as he said would happen. Come and see where his body was lying. And now, go and tell his disciples he has been raised from the and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you. The women ran quickly away from the tomb. They were afraid but also filled WITH GREAT JOY, and they rushed to find the disciples to give them the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them. "Greetings!” he said. And they ran to him, held his feet and worshiped him.” Matthew 28: 5-9 NLV

Beforehand, John’s Gospel tells us repeatedly in the chapters preceding the account of the crucifiction and the resurrection that Jesus had said:

“I have told them many things while I was with them SO they would be FILLED WITH JOY.” John 17:13 (italics mine)

It is Easter again. Jesus has risen from the so that we also might live again. Jesus told his dear friend Martha after her brother Lazarus had died:

‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, they will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and they will never perish. Do you believe this Martha?” John 11:25-26.

Do you believe this? Who are you going to run and tell?

Your friend,
Carol Kauffman