Monday, June 09, 2008

Mess to Miracle

Dear Family and Friends,

I just wanted to let you know we have made it safely to Mbale. We did experience some problems. Our airplane from Austin was delayed; the plane from Kansas was delayed, as well. The Kansas group arrived in Chicago to catch the connecting flight at about 7:45 pm, and we stepped off our plane at 8:00 pm. Our flight was to leave for London at 8:25. We had to run - and believe me - we did run, across the airport, catching a tram to a totally different terminal at Chicago O'Hare.

When we were in transit to the other terminal, we found that two members of our team had not printed their boarding passes from British Airways. We rushed to BA to find they had closed for the night - no boarding passes. I sent the rest of the team to the gate so they could make the flight to London with the Kansas and Illinois groups. A major problem facing the three of us that evening was the fact that British Airways only flies into Uganda three days a week. If we weren't able to leave on a flight that night, we would have been in London for two days.

A miracle: We went back to American, which was our airline to Chicago. I told them the situation saying that we had to be on a plane that night. I was told it couldn't happen. Our suitcases had been downloaded from the airplane. We were to pick them up in the morning and then fly out the next day. Finally, after much discussion, the lady said she would speak to the supervisor. I stepped to the side and prayed. The supervisor did quite a lot of checking, and then put all three of us on the 10:30 p.m. American Airlines flight to London. After we boarded, a call came over the speaker and asked if three people would be willing to get off the plane, as they had overbooked. Then they asked 8 more people to volunteer to get off the plane. We were given seats on an airplane that was already overbooked by 11 people. How amazing is that?! God is good!

The latest: Because we all arrived at the airport in Chicago at 'take off time', we have 10 people whose luggage has not arrived in Uganda. The next BA flight doesn't arrive until Wednesday - the next on Saturday. Please pray that all of our luggage will arrive, not just for clothes, but ministry tools, puppets, gifts, etc. ... The people at the airport believe the teams' luggage is still in Chicago. It is a problem especially since we are about a five hour drive from the airport.

Tonight we had a wonderful time meeting and enjoyed getting acquainted with others on the team We will be leaving the hotel in the morning about 7:30, and will work until at least 8:00pm. The next few days will be crazy.

I hope all is well in Texas! I am thrilled to be in Uganda and looking forward to daily adventures.

Trudy

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am glad to hear you are all safe and in good spirits. Sorry aboutt he delays and luggage issues, though. Please hug Elena for me and tell her that Rachel misses her and is proud of her. Have a wonderful adventure!