By Kayla DeKraker
Country singer turned pastor Granger Smith and his daughter London opened up about the wild experience they on their way home from a missions trip.
The father-daughter duo traveled to an unnamed country in Latin America. They and their team were the first people to arrive by plane in 50 years to the still rarely reached country.
“We brought medicine, but we would come in with the gospel with medicine,” Smith explained. “That’s how we knocked on doors. ‘Do you have anybody sick? Anybody that needs medicine? Anybody pregnant, anybody with parasites, any illnesses, headaches, anything?’ And that would get us in the conversation.”
He added, “We would tell them the reason we’re here. So, I noticed that the guys they would tell the gospel. And at the end they would say, ‘Okay, would you like to accept Jesus? Then let’s pray a prayer.’”
After a successful missions experience, the craziest part of the journey began.
During a layover in Atlanta, Georgia, on their way back to Austin, Texas, a major hailstorm hit the airport. Unfortunately, the airplane they were supposed to get on was damaged, all flights were delayed for days and all hotels were booked for miles.
“All of a sudden, this beautiful trip suddenly has this chaos at the end,” Smith said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, Lord, what are you doing?’ And here’s the thing. The next day — this was on a Friday — Saturday in College Station, Texas, was my grandmother’s funeral. And I was officiating. I had actually written the message to preach at the funeral in those mountains.”
Smith and London found an Uber driver, who deserted them at a random gas station when he realized they did not yet have a hotel. Smith decided to try to go four hours away to Nashville, Tennessee, because he knew people there. To their surprise, an Uber driver accepted the trip. When he pulled up, he was playing Brandon Lake’s “Graves into Gardens.”
“He said, ‘Do you mind? Do you mind if I play Christian music? I’m trying to be more open with my faith,’” Smith recalled him saying. “And I was like, ‘No, I’m a pastor. I don’t mind.’ And I said, ‘Actually, we’ve been praying for this ride…that the Lord would deliver us through this.’”
London picked up the story, adding, “he said, ‘That’s strange…I did, too. I was asking the Lord to deliver me, deliver me when I pick up these people.”
Related: Granger Smith Excited for Life in Ministry: ‘So Much Joy’
Smith still stays in contact with the man to encourage him in his faith.
Eventually, the singer and his daughter connected with a friend who found them a private plane that brought them home.
Smith made it to his grandmother’s funeral with one minute to spare.
He concluded, “He brought me through all of that. For what? All the reasons…I have no idea. One of them I know one reason is to tell it right here. To tell other people, to remind them in their season of darkness when it feels like there is no other way that even when it feels like, ‘Lord, you’re doing something bad, we know you are good.’”
Smith is all too familiar with God working out difficult situations for good.
In 2019, his 3-year-old son River drowned in the family pool.
“The world is going to come at us; we’re going to feel terrible; we have huge obstacles, but we are not going to split,” he said of his and his wife, Amber’s, attitude after the tragedy. “We have to make this agreement for the other two kids — for, at least, the other two.”
Since then, Smith has used his pain for purpose and is now a full-time minister.
His life echoes a truth found in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.”
Although we may not understand why frustrating or tragic things happen, God always has a good plan.
Read Next: Granger Smith Recalls Salvation Moment: ‘Nothing Looked the Same’
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