There is no doubt in my mind that to be a Missionary, short-term/long-term, you need to be flexible. Case in point, our trip this year has been the most difficult to plan, most difficult to finance, most difficult to even get travel arrangements taken care of, and most difficult to even get to our host country of Ukraine! But through all that, some exciting things have happened. Our team KNOWS that God is with us.
As you can see from the last blog post, we were delayed in Phoenix which set forth a domino effect of changes in our traveling schedule. One hour late in Phoenix meant that we were met at the gate in Chicago with tickets for TOMORROW'S flight to London. Well, that meant that we would not only have to overnight in Chicago, we'd also have to overnight in London. I had of course not planned on TWO overnight layovers, but instead only budgeted for one. Praying hard, we were helped out by an American Airlines agent from Nigeria. He never stopped smiling, and neither did I. I knew this was a divine appointment, so I spoke with him as he attempted to get us a hotel for the night. By the end of the conversation, EVERYTHING was paid for by American Airlines. Normally for Mechanical issues, they don't have to do that.
Then we arrived in London. A bit late, 11:15PM. Our flight didn't leave until 8:05 the next morning. We were already tired and didn't want to spend the night at Heathrow. Down we went to the only office still open for American Airlines, the Lost baggage office. Sitting behind the desk were three cheerful faces. Nav, Roger, and Vijay. In there cheerful English accents they promptly showed us our luggage was right behind us waiting to be transferred to Kiev, and Vijay called the Renaissance Hotel and put us up for the 7 hours we had to wait.
Think it's over? Not yet my friends. When we arrived at Heathrow the next morning, we discovered that they didn't have us in the system. No boarding passes, no flight record on British Airways. Once again, English Hospitality (and a lot of prayers by our group) had us on the flight to Kiev and off to our destination. Landing, we found that only 3 pieces of luggage had gone missing, but were found back in London and put on the next flight. Hopefully I'll survive until my clothes get here. (of course it was my bag that was one of the ones left behind, I'm the Pastor/Leader of the group).
Finally arriving, we were met by Micah and Christy Claycamp and Yura. They were a sight for sore eyes. Dinner, a drive to Kaharlyk, and we finally stumbled into bed. Praise the Lord for His goodness, mercy, and grace to us. More to come later, and hopefully we'll get the other people on the trip to post some of their experiences and thoughts.
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