Long-distance online dating can be rough—just ask Alexander Pieter Cirk, who lives in Holland but had fallen for a Chinese woman he'd met online. Fed up with the distance between them, he got a visa, booked a flight, and flew 5,000 miles to see her. He'd sent her a picture of his itinerary, but when he arrived at the Changsha airport, she was nowhere to be found. "Convinced that she would eventually come for him," however, "Cirk decided to stay at the terminal and patiently waited for her." Patiently, indeed: 10 days later, the "frail-looking Cirk" was taken to a hospital. And what about his girlfriend? A Chinese TV team was able to find her, and "[s]he confessed that she thought Cirk was joking about the trip."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Though hopefully none of us have had to be hospitalized after waiting around an airport for days on end, those feelings of hopefulness (that turns into hopelessness) and patience (that turns into impatience) might sound familiar. Thankfully, when we're waiting on answers to prayers and petitions, we can know that God has heard us—and he didn't just think we were "joking."

Source:

Ed Flanagan, “Online Dating: Boyfriend Flies to China, Waits Days at Airport,” NBC News (8-2-16)