Our Philippine mission team arrived at Benino Aquino International Airport in Manila at 5:35 local time Wednesday morning, Feb 18, 2009 (4:35 PM on Tuesday back home). At that point we had been on the way for 28 hours since leaving Huntington on Sunday afternoon. We are a day behind schedule, due to missing our overseas flight in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. We’re all tired, but none the worse for wear as I can tell. While the events of late Sunday night were frustrating, a Sovereign God has worked out all the details as He has chosen to do. The delay has helped to teach us several lessons, and has created other opportunities for witnessing. Cathy Howerton hit the nail on the head when she commented on an earlier blog that we “shouldn’t forget that we’re missionaries, and LA needs missionaries too.” Well said, Mrs. Howerton!
I cannot connect to the internet here in the airport, so I am typing this on a Word document and will copy and paste it to the blog on my first opportunity after we get to Dumaguete. There have been a number of personal set backs along the way, up to departure, and on the trip itself. Each team member can testify to trying experiences in attempting to be part of this team. My own personal bumps in the road include the broken foot, and then part of my “Moon Boot” that broke in Los Angeles. Right now I have the thing temporarily patched up with some “Korean Air Lines” packing tape that the ground crew in Guam allowed me to have.
We have each taken an unexpected $300 hit due to missing the Sunday night flight out of LA and having to rebook on Philippine Airlines. We only had two hours scheduled on the ground in LA to begin with, and when the US Airways flight was delayed two hours in it’s departure from Charlotte, things didn’t look good. The final nail in the coffin came when they announced we would have to land at Dallas/Fort Worth to refuel due to high headwinds. When we made the mad dash from Terminal 1 in LA three terminals down to the Tom Bradley International Terminal, we saw that Philippine Airlines Flight 103 had departed 20 minutes earlier.
On the bright side, US Airways did provide us with hotel rooms Sunday night and a food voucher. As a result of that, we didn’t have to live with the homeless folks out on the street on Sunday night. Since southern California was experiencing it’s worst winter storm since the 1950’s, the warm dry hotel room was indeed a blessing.
We cleared customs here in Manila and had to jump through some hoops at a ticket office here due to the rebooking of flights, but thankfully, everything fell into place. So now we wait…
Our domestic flight to Dumaguete is scheduled for a 2:45 PM departure. That means that we should arrive at our final destination at 4:00 PM on Wednesday evening – a full 52 hours after saying goodbye to our families at Tri State Airport on Sunday.
We feel an excitement over all of this. I cannot help but believe that the Enemy has worked overtime to keep us from making this trip. We believe that God is getting ready to do something wonderful here – and we hope to be able to see the results. In the mean time, please keep us in your prayers. Pray that God is already preparing us, and that He is preparing the hearts of those who will hear our message. Pray for God’s hedge of protection around Pastors Doming Valdez, Joseph Zerna, Jonathan Ugdoc, and their families as they serve Him under very difficult circumstances.
We hope to report on this site as often as is possible, to keep our partners back home updated on the activities of the next two weeks.
Until the Nets are Full,
I cannot connect to the internet here in the airport, so I am typing this on a Word document and will copy and paste it to the blog on my first opportunity after we get to Dumaguete. There have been a number of personal set backs along the way, up to departure, and on the trip itself. Each team member can testify to trying experiences in attempting to be part of this team. My own personal bumps in the road include the broken foot, and then part of my “Moon Boot” that broke in Los Angeles. Right now I have the thing temporarily patched up with some “Korean Air Lines” packing tape that the ground crew in Guam allowed me to have.
We have each taken an unexpected $300 hit due to missing the Sunday night flight out of LA and having to rebook on Philippine Airlines. We only had two hours scheduled on the ground in LA to begin with, and when the US Airways flight was delayed two hours in it’s departure from Charlotte, things didn’t look good. The final nail in the coffin came when they announced we would have to land at Dallas/Fort Worth to refuel due to high headwinds. When we made the mad dash from Terminal 1 in LA three terminals down to the Tom Bradley International Terminal, we saw that Philippine Airlines Flight 103 had departed 20 minutes earlier.
On the bright side, US Airways did provide us with hotel rooms Sunday night and a food voucher. As a result of that, we didn’t have to live with the homeless folks out on the street on Sunday night. Since southern California was experiencing it’s worst winter storm since the 1950’s, the warm dry hotel room was indeed a blessing.
We cleared customs here in Manila and had to jump through some hoops at a ticket office here due to the rebooking of flights, but thankfully, everything fell into place. So now we wait…
Our domestic flight to Dumaguete is scheduled for a 2:45 PM departure. That means that we should arrive at our final destination at 4:00 PM on Wednesday evening – a full 52 hours after saying goodbye to our families at Tri State Airport on Sunday.
We feel an excitement over all of this. I cannot help but believe that the Enemy has worked overtime to keep us from making this trip. We believe that God is getting ready to do something wonderful here – and we hope to be able to see the results. In the mean time, please keep us in your prayers. Pray that God is already preparing us, and that He is preparing the hearts of those who will hear our message. Pray for God’s hedge of protection around Pastors Doming Valdez, Joseph Zerna, Jonathan Ugdoc, and their families as they serve Him under very difficult circumstances.
We hope to report on this site as often as is possible, to keep our partners back home updated on the activities of the next two weeks.
Until the Nets are Full,
C.J.
PS. We made it to Dumaguete this afternoon AT 4:00 pm. a good sized group from the Church were on hand to meet us. We have tonight and tomorrow morning to catch up on our rest and the work begins in earnest tomorrow evening with a full American/Filipino Team Meeting.
Praying for you CJ! Wish I could be there with you guys.
ReplyDeleteWish you could too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your prayers.
Please give our "team" in NOLA our love and best wishes.
Hope to see you all the week of Easter.