Monday, June 23, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Our first days
Our trip started out pretty crazy. We were up past two packing, then woke up at a little after four. Uncle M. and Aunt S. drove us to the airport to help, and say goodbye.
Our flight was to leave at six, and we were a little nervous arriving there at five, but because it wasn´t an international flight yet, we thought we´d have enough time. When we got to the airport E. and S. were there with their two boys to say goodbye and help with our bags.
Once most of the checkons were taken care of, everyone but Dad started through secruity. Once we got to the line some of us felt a little panicky. There were tons of people waiting to go through.
We tried to rush as quickly as possible, only to be stopped because someone had forgotten to take all the liquids and gels out of their backpack. By this time, Mom was pretty flustered trying to decide what to do with what couldn´t be carried on, Dad was somewhere behind us, Bob had already gone way ahead, Lana and Jack were wondering if they should stick with Mom and Dana or go on ahead with Bob.
It was decided that Bob, and Mom would see if there was ANY possible way to get the liquids and gels that we really needed on our trip back into a checkon bag. Dana would take Mom´s carryons as well as hers, and see if she could catch up with the rest of the kids.
Somehow, Dad got to the gate first, without any of us seeing him. Shortly thereafter Jack and Lana came panting up. Bob had gone down the wrong concourse, but had finally found our gate. Dana met Dad running back towards security.
¨Where´s Mom?¨
¨She´s back where we checked on bags looking for YOU!¨
He kept on running and because Dana knew we had already missed the flight, was able to slow down, and walk to the gate where the kids were sitting- luggage sprawled all around them. Jack and Lana appeared to be calm, and unworried about missing the plane. Ben wasn´t feeling good at all. Everyone was exhausted from running across the whole airport- each of us with at least a backpack and a carry-on packed so tight that the seams looked as if they were going to pop!
Just as we were catching our breaths we saw Mom running down the hall- past our gate. Her face was all red, and she was sweating.
¨Where´s Dad?¨
¨He´s looking for you!¨
¨Ok, I´ll go back and find him¨
¨Mom, I think it might just be better to stay here and wait for him¨
Mom was pretty upset because she had to throw away all those things we couldn´t buy here in South America, and that we had missed the flight.
About then, Dad came back to where we were. Mom and he talked to the ladies at the desk about getting on another flight. but all the flights to Seattle were over-booked. The ladies told us there was no way to get us on a flight to Seattle until 7pm, and the tickets were very expensive- especially since they wouldn´t refund the ones from the flight we had missed. There was no way we´d be able to catch our other flights if we were to do that- we were to have four layovers that day! If we missed the first one, we´d miss all the others too!
Dad and Mom really didn´t know what they should do, and decided to just reserve those seats at 7 that evening.
It seemed like everything was going wrong. Were we making the right decision in going? Why was the Lord allowing this? We just couldn´t understand. We gathered around and Dad prayed that we would accept this, and just to what the Lord wanted us to do.
SInce we wouldn´t be leaving for a while at least, Dad and Mom decided to go back and see if they could find the people at the desk where we´d checked on our bags, as well as see if they could find the liquids and gels Mom had thrown away. The kids stayed at the gate with the luggage.
Mom had been so overwhelmed and stressed that she had forgotten what garbage can she´d thrown the stuff into, so Dad had to dig through eight of them before finding the right one. The bags had coffee, and all kinds of other junk covering them, so he had to go rinse them off in the bathroom sink. We were so thankful to have found them!
While he was doing this, Mom ran into the lady we worked with while checking in our bags. As soon as she saw Mom she started apologizing ¨Oh, I am so sorry. WHen the computers jammed and it took so long to get your luggage taken care of, I knew there was no possible way you could have made it onthe plane. After you left I felt so bad about letting you go thinking there might be a possiblity...¨
From then on everything turned out for the better. It ended up that the lady was the manager, and she worked it out that the tickets we had reserved a little bit earlier at our gate were paid for by the airlines, as well as a direct flight to Miami from there, making it in time to get on our flight to Bogota.
Dad and Mom came back to find all the kids- exept Bob who was guarding our stuff- sprawled out on the carpet sleeping. After they were woken up, there were apologies for being so stressed and upset, then we stopped and thanked the Lord for how He had worked everything out. It was WAY better than we EVER could have imagined. Now we only had to change planes twice, and didn´t have to spend the night in the Miami airport! And the best part- we´d get to spend more time with everyone back home- time where we were un-stressed and relaxed!
So, we came back, slept for a few hours in comfy beds and hung out with everyone. Some people we´d been too rushed to say goodbye to in person came over, and we got to spend some time with them.
This time we got to the airport in plenty of time :D. Everyone was much happier and we all felt rested.
From there, everything went smoothly. We only had four hours total sitting in airports and arrived in Bogota at 1:00 the next day!
A sister from the assembly picked us up and brought us to a beautiful hotel- that had hot water!!!! It was wonderful. The room had six beds. We all took naps before walking down to the meeting room.
It has been so incredible to see how the Lord has been working everything out. Answering prayers, as well as going above and beyond what we could ask for !
At noon on Thursday, we accompanied Pepes wife to a small restaurant next door to the hotel, and upon arriving noticed some other gringos at a nearby table. Danl went over to speak to them and asked them where they were from. The young blonde guy answered, From the kingdom of God. Danl answered, great!! so are we!! With a clearly disdained look on his face, he replied, nó you are not. you have nothing to do with us. you go around the world proselytizing and making people 10 times worse the sons of the devil than you are. We were totally shocked and when Danl tried to share a little bit of the Lords love and salvation it was clear they in no way wanted to hear more and the gal said that her spirit witnessed within her as soon as she saw us that we were the enemy. We had never run into anything like this before. Their looks of hatred toward us were unsettling and the sister with us said there are alot of them around this area. They spoke fluent Spanish too. We just prayed for them, and then thot back of the older couple who we talked to in the airport that day who prayed with us for protection and blessing on the trip as they were real believers who were thankful that the gospel was being spread.
Thursday evening was Bible Studyand Pete G. flew from NJ and then on Friday pm Em, Sal, Rubio and Dave joined us. Saturday was spent passing out tracts and texts around the hotel area. We were rarely refused, and some seemed very thankful for the Bible messages.
On Sunday Sunday School began @ 10 am and it was encouraging as the boys each had a passage they read to us and then explained what they had enjoyed or learned from it. Dave thot it would be a good idea for our kids to do in the US! Lord´s table was at 9 am, then a time of teaching after that. We sat around visiting and sharing in little groups. They were very outgoing and friendly and open in their love for the Lord. There were about 50 people there total.
We went to a small market where a cafeteria was inside and ate together. We moved to a cheaper hotel and passed out some more tracts in a beautiful park.
It´s time to leave for yellow fever shots now!
Our flight was to leave at six, and we were a little nervous arriving there at five, but because it wasn´t an international flight yet, we thought we´d have enough time. When we got to the airport E. and S. were there with their two boys to say goodbye and help with our bags.
Once most of the checkons were taken care of, everyone but Dad started through secruity. Once we got to the line some of us felt a little panicky. There were tons of people waiting to go through.
We tried to rush as quickly as possible, only to be stopped because someone had forgotten to take all the liquids and gels out of their backpack. By this time, Mom was pretty flustered trying to decide what to do with what couldn´t be carried on, Dad was somewhere behind us, Bob had already gone way ahead, Lana and Jack were wondering if they should stick with Mom and Dana or go on ahead with Bob.
It was decided that Bob, and Mom would see if there was ANY possible way to get the liquids and gels that we really needed on our trip back into a checkon bag. Dana would take Mom´s carryons as well as hers, and see if she could catch up with the rest of the kids.
Somehow, Dad got to the gate first, without any of us seeing him. Shortly thereafter Jack and Lana came panting up. Bob had gone down the wrong concourse, but had finally found our gate. Dana met Dad running back towards security.
¨Where´s Mom?¨
¨She´s back where we checked on bags looking for YOU!¨
He kept on running and because Dana knew we had already missed the flight, was able to slow down, and walk to the gate where the kids were sitting- luggage sprawled all around them. Jack and Lana appeared to be calm, and unworried about missing the plane. Ben wasn´t feeling good at all. Everyone was exhausted from running across the whole airport- each of us with at least a backpack and a carry-on packed so tight that the seams looked as if they were going to pop!
Just as we were catching our breaths we saw Mom running down the hall- past our gate. Her face was all red, and she was sweating.
¨Where´s Dad?¨
¨He´s looking for you!¨
¨Ok, I´ll go back and find him¨
¨Mom, I think it might just be better to stay here and wait for him¨
Mom was pretty upset because she had to throw away all those things we couldn´t buy here in South America, and that we had missed the flight.
About then, Dad came back to where we were. Mom and he talked to the ladies at the desk about getting on another flight. but all the flights to Seattle were over-booked. The ladies told us there was no way to get us on a flight to Seattle until 7pm, and the tickets were very expensive- especially since they wouldn´t refund the ones from the flight we had missed. There was no way we´d be able to catch our other flights if we were to do that- we were to have four layovers that day! If we missed the first one, we´d miss all the others too!
Dad and Mom really didn´t know what they should do, and decided to just reserve those seats at 7 that evening.
It seemed like everything was going wrong. Were we making the right decision in going? Why was the Lord allowing this? We just couldn´t understand. We gathered around and Dad prayed that we would accept this, and just to what the Lord wanted us to do.
SInce we wouldn´t be leaving for a while at least, Dad and Mom decided to go back and see if they could find the people at the desk where we´d checked on our bags, as well as see if they could find the liquids and gels Mom had thrown away. The kids stayed at the gate with the luggage.
Mom had been so overwhelmed and stressed that she had forgotten what garbage can she´d thrown the stuff into, so Dad had to dig through eight of them before finding the right one. The bags had coffee, and all kinds of other junk covering them, so he had to go rinse them off in the bathroom sink. We were so thankful to have found them!
While he was doing this, Mom ran into the lady we worked with while checking in our bags. As soon as she saw Mom she started apologizing ¨Oh, I am so sorry. WHen the computers jammed and it took so long to get your luggage taken care of, I knew there was no possible way you could have made it onthe plane. After you left I felt so bad about letting you go thinking there might be a possiblity...¨
From then on everything turned out for the better. It ended up that the lady was the manager, and she worked it out that the tickets we had reserved a little bit earlier at our gate were paid for by the airlines, as well as a direct flight to Miami from there, making it in time to get on our flight to Bogota.
Dad and Mom came back to find all the kids- exept Bob who was guarding our stuff- sprawled out on the carpet sleeping. After they were woken up, there were apologies for being so stressed and upset, then we stopped and thanked the Lord for how He had worked everything out. It was WAY better than we EVER could have imagined. Now we only had to change planes twice, and didn´t have to spend the night in the Miami airport! And the best part- we´d get to spend more time with everyone back home- time where we were un-stressed and relaxed!
So, we came back, slept for a few hours in comfy beds and hung out with everyone. Some people we´d been too rushed to say goodbye to in person came over, and we got to spend some time with them.
This time we got to the airport in plenty of time :D. Everyone was much happier and we all felt rested.
From there, everything went smoothly. We only had four hours total sitting in airports and arrived in Bogota at 1:00 the next day!
A sister from the assembly picked us up and brought us to a beautiful hotel- that had hot water!!!! It was wonderful. The room had six beds. We all took naps before walking down to the meeting room.
It has been so incredible to see how the Lord has been working everything out. Answering prayers, as well as going above and beyond what we could ask for !
At noon on Thursday, we accompanied Pepes wife to a small restaurant next door to the hotel, and upon arriving noticed some other gringos at a nearby table. Danl went over to speak to them and asked them where they were from. The young blonde guy answered, From the kingdom of God. Danl answered, great!! so are we!! With a clearly disdained look on his face, he replied, nó you are not. you have nothing to do with us. you go around the world proselytizing and making people 10 times worse the sons of the devil than you are. We were totally shocked and when Danl tried to share a little bit of the Lords love and salvation it was clear they in no way wanted to hear more and the gal said that her spirit witnessed within her as soon as she saw us that we were the enemy. We had never run into anything like this before. Their looks of hatred toward us were unsettling and the sister with us said there are alot of them around this area. They spoke fluent Spanish too. We just prayed for them, and then thot back of the older couple who we talked to in the airport that day who prayed with us for protection and blessing on the trip as they were real believers who were thankful that the gospel was being spread.
Thursday evening was Bible Studyand Pete G. flew from NJ and then on Friday pm Em, Sal, Rubio and Dave joined us. Saturday was spent passing out tracts and texts around the hotel area. We were rarely refused, and some seemed very thankful for the Bible messages.
On Sunday Sunday School began @ 10 am and it was encouraging as the boys each had a passage they read to us and then explained what they had enjoyed or learned from it. Dave thot it would be a good idea for our kids to do in the US! Lord´s table was at 9 am, then a time of teaching after that. We sat around visiting and sharing in little groups. They were very outgoing and friendly and open in their love for the Lord. There were about 50 people there total.
We went to a small market where a cafeteria was inside and ate together. We moved to a cheaper hotel and passed out some more tracts in a beautiful park.
It´s time to leave for yellow fever shots now!
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