“Rest, don’t rush,” God said to Rev Edmund Chan as he tried to leave Dubai

Rev Edmund Chan, Leadership Mentor of Covenant Evangelical Free Church, was in Dubai with his wife Ann for a conference when Iranian missile and drone attacks struck the Gulf region following US- and Israel-led strikes on Iran.

On March 3, Salt&Light republished a reflection by Rev Edmund, in which he encouraged people to trust in God presence and sovereignty over the situation. Here, he shares another update dated March 6, 2026, which Salt&Light republishes with permission.

Many have prayed for our safe exit out of Dubai.

Last Monday, it was reported that the United Arab Emirates’ air defences had intercepted 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 541 drones. More missiles and drones were intercepted since. Last Tuesday, the United States’ embassy in Dubai was hit by a drone assault.

With a restricted airspace, about 160 pastors and Christian leaders were stranded in Dubai after the Impact Day conference.

When airspace was intermittently opened, there was a scramble for air tickets out of Dubai. Imagine a scenario where there are 100,000 wanting to leave and there are only 10,000 tickets available!

But no air ticket purchase was secure. There were many flight cancellations. Our original return tickets were useless. The flight was “cancelled indefinitely”.

So we re-booked our tickets. Flight cancelled again. And again. And again. Altogether, four sets of tickets on different departure times were cancelled.

“Rest, don’t rush”

We were “prepared to stay and ready to go”.

This positive attitude offered Ann and I a balanced posture of rested-ness (“prepared to stay”), alongside a proactive search for flights out of Dubai to fulfil our other overseas ministries. Yes, our bags were optimally packed at all times and “ready to go”.

Our next ministry destination is the USA. As each day passed, the viability of returning to Singapore for a short turnaround before the USA trip got slimmer.

On Tuesday, I received a video call from a beloved friend who is closer than a brother. (Knowing him, he wouldn’t wish to be named.) He lovingly said that he would undertake to pay for our tickets out of Dubai to any available flight destination.

Just get out of the war zone.

On Wednesday morning, we received news from the Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Etihad Airways has flights from Abu Dhabi to Singapore on March 5. But we must book the flight immediately as tickets were in extremely high demand. 

We informed Katherine, my personal assistant, of this option to book us a flight out of Abu Dhabi. She has worked tirelessly to find a flight that would bring us home!

Meanwhile, Ann was also searching for alternative flights out of Abu Dhabi.  I asked her to pause. As we often do, we joined hands to pray. We specifically asked God if we should head out to Abu Dhabi.

“Rest, don’t rush”, I clearly heard the Lord say – exact words.

So, I told Ann to stop her search for alternatives, and texted Katherine to hold off the booking.

No need to rush.

Shortly, Katherine informed us that the flight was yet to be confirmed.

At my listening prayer time with Ann, I discerned two things clearly: “Don’t go to Abu Dhabi. Instead, go to Dubai airport tomorrow!”

A decision was made. Regardless of circumstances, we are headed for the airport tomorrow!

Divine provision

At noon, we met up with a group of key leaders for lunch.  They are dear friends of our beloved hosts, Dr John Joseph and Hannah.

It was a divine appointment.

Rev Edmund speaking at Impact Day in Dubai before the air strikes took place.

A person in the group heard our plight and called a contact with influence, who then connected Dr Joseph with someone who prioritised Ann and I on a waitlist to San Francisco!

Waitlisted. It was a sign that we were moving in the right direction. 

So, at 5.15am on March 5, our gracious hosts woke up early and took us to the airport. We joyfully prayed and worshipped in the car – full of confidence that God is sovereign over all.

Our worship was heartfelt, even though we had no guarantee that our waitlist status would find us seats on that crowded flight. Or any guarantee in a war zone that the flight itself would not be cancelled at the last minute. 

We arrived at a crowded Dubai airport before 6am. Thousands were there. And yes! God is faithful in answering many of your prayers. We got our tickets to board!

Once again, as with previous dire scenarios, we prayed, surrendered our agenda to God, discerned God’s leading, and stepped out in faith. We do our best, God will do the rest!

Some of these faith exploits (separate incidents) include:

1. When we went to the Taipei airport by faith (even though we were notified that our flight was cancelled due to a severe Typhoon Hato in Hong Kong) – but when we arrived at the airport, the typhoon had weakened and we got our tickets to fly!

2. When by faith we went to an empty Hiroshima airport (when ALL flights were cancelled due to Typhoon Lan, and we were told by the airline staff that “there’s no plane on the ground”) – but God shifted the typhoon and the counter staff led us to a competitor airline and we got our tickets (free of charge!) to fly on another airline. On a day when our original carrier had no plane on the ground!
3. When a snowstorm hit Heathrow airport in London (it was shut down for three days and we were notified that there were massive flight cancellations).  Following God’s leading, we went by faith to the airport that looked like a refugee camp – and the airspace opened up and we flew. On the same day!

On these occasions, when we got our boarding passes, we paused to give thanks and to pray that the planes would take off.

And amidst massive flight cancellations in Taiwan, Japan, UK, and now in the Middle East, the planes took off and led us to our next ministry destinations – to serve the Living God who cannot fail and will not fail!

Baruch HaShem!

Great days ahead,
Edmund Chan
Mentoring Leaders.
Multiplying Disciples.

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