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Location: Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States

Not content with the ordinary. Searching for the supernatural.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Swaziland Detour

Aloha to all of you from Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is beautiful, although rather hot and humid. Actually the first day we were here was not too bad, felt kind of like Hawaii during Huricane season with no trade winds. Last night, however, we went out after it had been raining for a few hours. I believe I was complete soaked through in less than 15 minutes. Such a pleasant feeling - NOT! hehe
The people here have been amazing. The men at Malaysian Airlines were not very nice, but everyone else we met has been great. In fact, we may have Sauni - AKA, Angelina Jolie - married off to a cute conciere here at the hotel. Hehe. He has an Indian name that I can not spell - starts with a G and ends with th, but his "catholic" name is Bobbie. You may all now share in the razzing of Sauni. When we told him we were going to Africa to help with AIDS orphans, he looked at Sauni and told her that she looked like Angelina Jolie. A moment we will never forget, I am sure. There have been many of those that I will put on my personal blog, for those who want to take the time to read more in depth about our adventures.
In case I did not clarify, the reason we were not able to fly out had to do with our luggage. We were told that Malaysian Airlines allowed 2 checked bags at 20kg per person and that if we joined their frequent flier program we could take 30kg per person. We packed everything accordingly. We were taking clothing, vocational training supplies and sanitary supplies (soap, toothbrushes, etc.) When we tried to check in, they told us that the packing limit was 20kg total per person, not per bag and that we would have to come up with $6000 in order to check in or find a way to get rid of our luggage. By the time they gave us that information it was almost midnight and they were ready to close. We all agreed that we would have to sacrifice the donated items in order to get to Africa, but we also knew that we could not accomplish it in the 5 minutes that the man was providing us. He refused to hold the flight while we emptied our luggage. So we went back to our hotel - thankfully they allowed us to stay in the rooms we had already paid for earlier in the day - and slept for a few hours hoping a solution would present itself.
We all went through a phase of panic, wondering what to do and how to find help. Then peace began to settle in. We found an angel by the name of Eddie who worked both as a Travel Agent and for the Government Charity Organization. He arranged for us to stay at a hotel in town, transportation back and forth and our new airline tickets. He is also arranging for us to visit an orphanage here in Kuala Lumpur and arranging for someone to pick up our donated items. We are all working our luggage down to 20 kg.
There have been problems. Out of the 6 of us stranded in Kuala Lumpur, 4 of us have chronic illness or pain of some sort, so you can imagine with the stress of all that happened, we had a few rough moments where our bodies didn't want to cooperate, but everything has evened out. Carolynn has even been able to stabilize her sugar levels. Never have I been at a point in my life where I felt so vulnerable and not in contol. Lacking sleep in a foreign country with no place to stay and very little money. Not to mention the stress of missing prescheduled meetings and not being able to meet up with the rest of the team broke each of us I think. And I am glad. We were forced into a situation where we had to wait on God and trust Him to provide what we needed. We have prayed together many times and although our first prayer of being allowed on Malaysia airlines was not answered the way we might have hoped, every prayer since then has.
We have met with many people who have served us as angels and helped us get what was needed. There is so much more to say on the subject, but I realize I have been rambling for a long time. I will blog more later, but my 20 ringets are about all used up.
Please keep us in our prayers, but know that God is doing some amazing things amongst our team both in Swaziland and Kuala Lumpur. Those who would not have considered themselves leaders on this trip are stepping up to the plate in Africa and those who would have been considered leaders are learning how to live with one another in a situation where they have little control over anything other than their attitude and prayer time. Hhmmm, I think I can see God working in that. :-)
I will talk to you all later. Thank you for your prayers. If all goes well, we will be flying out at 1am Wed. morning for Johannesburg Africa.

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