Eric’s journey from Colorado Springs to Chicago 8/25/06-8/26/06
Quick summary/preview before reading:
Friday 445am awake early to send off the first of 30+ people I would say goodbye to from MTI
300pm – arrive at Colorado springs airport
310pm – see 10 people at the airport that I already said goodbye to
315-830pm entertain myself (and a few others) in the airport
830 flight finally leaves for dallas (on different plane than originally intended)
1015pm arrive in Dallas
1200am check in to hotel
400 am return to Dallas airport
615 leg 2 finally returning to Chicago

total journey = 19 hours, 1,600 miles traveled original plan = 8 hours, 1,600miles
if I had driven/hitchhiked = 15hours, 1,050miles

For the sake of time I will jump right into the story with me already at the Colorado springs airport, after saying goodbye to a few other missionaries whose flights were also delayed. You should also take note that my flight was scheduled to leave at 519pm. Around 5 pm a storm rolls through and it rains pretty hard for about 10 minuets. We are informed from the dirty mustache toting male flight attendant (he was very polite and nice but I felt mildly uncomfortable around him, lets just say I wouldn’t trust him to babysit, nor ever be alone in a room with him) that the plane we are waiting on to board for Dallas had to land at a nearby airport in order to refuel and wait out the rain. Somehow this refueling trip takes nearly 3 hours with dirty-stash man giving updates every hour or so that make no sense. I will summarize some of my favorites: 1) the plane has refueled and we are just waiting on paperwork for them to depart to here; 2)the airport they are at relies on 2 cell phones for communication, one of them has a dead battery, 3)we are not sure when the plane will be arriving, but we think it has taken off. 4) the computer says it has landed here, but we don’t see it, however, we have a back up plan: if this other plane gets here first we will load it up, but we don’t have a crew to fly it 5) believe it or not we are ready to board Needless to say, I was easily able to keep my sense of humor during the whole debacle. For the sake of time I will move on. But if you would like I more humorous details let me know. While on ground, I wasn’t crabby, but I was very unsure why God would want me to go through a waste of time like this. I was trying to think of reasons, so I started to look around, maybe God wanted me to talk to one of these people as we sleep in these uncomfortable airport lounge chairs, maybe God wants me to show others how to remain content and happy in a bad situation. Shortly after we took off I the pilot makes an announcement drawing everyone’s attention to look out the left side of the aircraft at two “pretty active cells, and you will see some good lightning”. Fortunately I was on the left side and had a great seat for the electric show. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. After a couple minuets the pilot gets back on the mic and says they are going to turn off all the lights in the cabin, and if people could turn off their reading lights everyone will see the lightening even better. So now almost everyone on the plane (which was half empty) is on the left side staring out the window. It is difficult to describe how powerful a lightening storm looks, but it gave me goose bumps. If you can imagine one of those goofy looking static electricity globes at the museum where you put both hands on it and it makes your hair stick up. Now take that image and magnify it a thousand times. Magnify it to God size. The entire sky was constantly lighting up and flashing, huge dark thunderstorm type clouds being light up for thousands of miles around. Large jagged bolts jutting within this ball of cloud and energy. Uh-mazing. So I sat there in complete awe of how awesomely powerful God is. To think He has all this power at his “fingertips” (side note: isn’t it funny how we try to describe God using weak human attributes) but at the same time He has the gentleness to know every detail of my life and has counted every hair on my head. There was never a doubt or fear in my mind of any danger from this unmatchable powerful display; for though I do not know what the future holds, I know who holds the future. Back to the plane – there I am now with tears welling up in my eyes, goose bumps on my arms, on a plane half full of people; the majority of whom have now missed their connecting flights and we have no idea what’s going to happen when we get to Dallas. I didn’t know where/if I would be sleeping that night, when the next flight home was, or where I was going to get my next meal, yet I felt a warm assurance wash over me. I don’t know if people thought I was scared or what, but I probably looked pretty weird. I guess I am used to that, and I was kinda hoping some one might ask me why I was freaking out so I could share with them. But as usual most people kept it all superficial. The rest of the night was also a continuing adventure. After I finally landed in Dallas, 7 hours after arriving at the airport in Colorado springs, I then found myself at the mercy of American Airlines. They hooked 25 of us up with hotel rooms at a nearby comfort suites. This was nice except that we were not allowed to get any luggage we had checked. Then we all waited outside for the shuttle. A 15 passenger bus rolled up an all 25 of us packed into it. Now we were sweaty, tired, hungry, and a little stinky. But other than that there was a sense of camaraderie that had begun to develop among us. the sarcasm began to flow, and soon we all were able to laugh about this experience. The final leg of this journey was rather uneventful. Sorry this was so long; but thanks for reading it all 