Pre-flight for me usually means a certain amount of jitters. Shouldn't be. Oh my have I prayed. And so has my wife. And others. And great answers have come.

It's all in the mind you know. That's why we are told to pray for more of the Holy Spirit, the one who gives a sound mind, along with other things. God helped me get back in the air months ago, going to longer and longer flights. This after practically swearing off flying due to a bad flight several years back...

There is a partial / temporary cure that I discovered this time around. The idea is, experience some real pain. The kind that's not in your brain at all, but in your hand or your leg, or as in my case, in the mouth.

Started feeling some tell-tale throbbing way back in the inner recesses of that cavern some weeks ago. It came and went, so I decided to let it go. Until I couldn't deal with that decision any more. Four trips to the dentist in the last couple of weeks have helped me make a scientific discovery: Real pain trumps imaginary pain any time.

After having half my mouth penetrated with needles one week, and the other half the next, and then attacking the original culprit, the tooth farthest away from human view and thus the trickiest to drill and fill, flying looked easy. The thought of sitting in a comfortable seat and being waited on, listening to sermons and music on my Ipod, sleeping if possible, it all just felt real good.

I don't recommend dentist appointments for all those suffering imaginary anxiety right now, but it sure worked for me, if only for a short while.

God Who is faithful, gives long-term cures too, for those who seek for them. Just recently I had a much more Heavenly answer to my cries for deliverance. As I began to praise Him and sense the working of His Spirit in my heart, more and more of the nervousness evaporated. By the time I got to Psalm 91, about the secret place that we are all called to inhabit, I knew that a man in Christ is invincible.

It is with this confidence that we soon take off for Korea, knowing we are loved and called and empowered. Beats a trip to the dentist any day. (Nothing personal against dentists!)

Well, things aren't getting any better on the peninsula we shall visit. We take comfort that your prayers go with us. Surely we experienced the blessing of God in raising funds. We are humbled by those who sacrificed to help get the Word into North Korea. And that is the bottom line of what we are about. Like it or not, Mr. Kim and his heir apparent will continue having to deal with tracts, Bibles, faxes, and who knows what else God will deliver.

It's just the way He is.