The Long Trip Home

This will be the last blog for this trip. Thanks so much for your prayers. Linda and I feel so much more prepared to be advocates for the people in India and Thailand now that we have seen it all firsthand. We got a little glimpse of how God sees these people. So many of them cannot help themselves out of poverty without our resources. They are willing but have no means.

Well, here is one last story. We decided to leave Bangkok early due to the political unrest there and the fact that we couldn't see some of our partnerships anyway. All flights were overbooked until May 7th, so we thought there was a slim chance of changing flights. However, we were able to slide in on a British Airways flight to London for Wednesday night. We were booked for just after midnight and got on the airplane, excited to be leaving town. We started full speed down the runway only to come to a screeching halt halfway down. After sitting on the tarmac for a little while, we were informed that our flight was cancelled for the night. We were deplaned onto a bus and shuttled back into the terminal at 1:30 am. The next part got pretty funny....talk about the blind leading the blind! First of all, Bangkok has a gigantic and beautiful modern airport, but in the middle of the night, there aren't a lot of staff around. So 300+ people get off our plane and start walking through the terminal to get our luggage. We walked all the way to the other end of the airport to find out we weren't in the right place. So we proceeded to walk all the way back to where we started and up a few floors to get our passport stamps cancelled. Then we walked all the way back to the other end again to get our luggage. Imagine 300 people marching back and forth through this huge empty airport in the middle of the night. It was quite a sight!

So, we finally exited the airport 3 hours later at 4:30 am. Then we had to wait for a bus to take us all to a hotel in which British Airways was putting us up until our airplane was fixed. Keep in mind that we were trying to get out of Bangkok because of riots, shootings, and bombings in downtown. So instead of being out of town at the remote location of the airport, the bus drives us right back into the city... ironic! You would think we'd stay somewhere close to the airport, but no, they drove us all in 6 buses for one hour! So, we showed up at the "Miracle Hotel" at 5:30 am. We ate breakfast and went straight to bed. There was one single letter from BA that was being literally "passed around" which said we would be flying out at midnight. But no word on when we would leave the hotel or anything else. We were all laughing as we were herded around like a bunch of lost sheep. We formed quite a community with this group of people.

By the time we woke up at 2pm, they had slid a copy of that one letter under our door, which still didn't tell us when or how we got to the airport. So, we went to the lobby to find that there was a bus sign-up sheet in half-hour intervals starting at 7pm. So we took a couple of really long showers and ate dinner and checked out of the hotel to board Bus #1. I do have to admit the free hotel was very nice and we had a full banquet feast for each meal. I kept waiting for the keynote speaker!

Long story short, we did board the plane around midnight on Thursday for London... and it actually took off this time! A call to American Airlines informed us that we couldn't get on a flight from London to Dallas, except the one we were already on for Sunday morning... but I don't accept "no" very easily. We got off the plane and went straight to the connections desk and got a ticket to Dallas for no charge. We then went back to passport control, checked out of the airport, got our luggage, and then checked back in at the departure desk. When we got boarding passes, we knew we were set! We got home on Friday afternoon... Thank God! Long trip home, but two days earlier than planned which was nice.

Well, we survived the scary food, the limited clean water, the New Zealand humor (Kevin, John, and Roger), the malaria Mosquitos, the sleeping on the floor under mosquito nets, the occasional bucket showers, the brushing teeth with water bottles, the stand-up toilets in the out-houses, the washing our hands with antibacterial gel and our bodies with baby wipes, the ridiculously long flights and car rides, the 105 degree humid heat, and all the smells and sights. It was worth every minute to meet the wonderful people of India and Thailand. God created all of us and in God's economy, those with resources should be helping those without. Whether it is sharing the love and message of Jesus or making a way out of poverty, HOPE exists "to give hope and dignity to those living on less than a dollar a day." Please join us in this endeavor!

If you are interested in helping HOPE World Partnerships, please visit our website for contact information: www.HOPEworldpartnerships.org. This month, we plan to update the "Partnerships" page with detailed descriptions of our unfunded partnerships. We also need help with La Mai Coffee sales and distribution, HOPE website design, video production, and spreading the word about projects. If you have any volunteer time to give, please contact us.

Thanks again for following our adventures and praying for us.

God bless,

Susy & Linda