After an all-nighter with my team mates at training camp, our travel day began. We left camp at 3:30, for our flight that left at 7:00AM. We began checking in and everything seemed fine, until I tried checking in on one of the kiosks and an error message came up.
I then had to go over to the customer service desk at which they told me that my flights were cancelled. Originally the flights should have been from Atlanta, to Chicago, to Abu Dhabi, to Hyderabad. But it only showed the first flight from ATL to Chicago, and yet that was void. So our Passport leader Abbie made a lot of phone calls to try and figure out what had happened, and what our course of action should be, but eventually it got really close to the departure time, so my team had to go through the gate, and so did Abbie as well, after she gave me her phone to keep in contact with the team and AIM staff.
So I sat at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, sending out prayer requests like crazy, praying that everything would get fixed within the next ten minutes and I could join my team on the other side of the gate. But alas, the time came, and the plane departed. I sat and waited for the call about what to do next, and eventually went to the food court where I ran into team Swazi who I sat with for a while.
After a couple of phone calls with an Adventures staff, we found a way it could work! The plan was for me to catch another flight from Atlanta to Chicago, and within twenty five minutes, disembark that plane, get through customs and be at the gate with the rest of my team for the flight to Abu Dhabi. So I rushed from where I was sitting to the check in desk, then through customs to wait for my flight at the gate.
On arrival I was greeted with the fact that the gate my plane was supposed to pull in to, was in use and our arrival would be delayed half an hour, meaning I would miss the flight from Chicago with my team mates. I sent a couple of messages to our team leader Jackelyn, and she told me that the flight to Abu Dhabi they had all boarded on, was about to pull from the gate. I then looked out the window of my plane, to see their Etihad Airways flight pulling out of the gate. (I actually also got my phone out and got a photo of the plane.)
So! So far this sounds really dang sad, right? But the awesome part is, even though I was dead tired, and so exhausted, God brought a massive sense of peace to my heart about the whole situation; It was a peace that knew I would eventually end up in India, that through the circumstance I was currently greeted with, he would mature, grow, and prepare me.
So about an hour after we landed, I got off the plane and waited for around seven hours in Chicago, eating pizza and face timing home while things were being busily organized and decided, and in the end, they organized a new flight plan, one that would take me from Chicago to Qatar, to Hyderabad. And it would actually get me to Hyderabad an hour earlier than the rest of my team. So after a thirteen hour flight, I landed in Doha, Qatar. The airport was awesome, there were dinosaurs, gigantic teddy bears sculptures, and lots of yellow. After that it was a four hour flight to Hyderabad. After landing, I waited an hour for my team to arrive, and I felt a great sense of happiness seeing them come through the gates.
So, it was quite a roller coaster really.
But I am so thankful for the blessings God brought through it, the lessons he taught me, and the support from my team, AIM, my local church, and my family.
Be praying for:
Health and strength within the team
Open ears and open eyes to the Gospel
And a safe time in Hyderabad
James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
