Well I've already been in Barbados for two days and have enjoyed two beautiful days of rest at the beach, which was much needed after the previous two days of traveling back 'home'.
I thought for fun I would share about the travel mania we had coming back as I have heard a few people ask questions about my crazy facebook status :)
Thursday we flew from Bolivia to Peru to Caracas. Outreach was officially over. It's amazing how time flew by at the end. We found out just a few days before departing that we had a $25 USD airport departure fee to pay. Money is always a fun topic in our group and is usually followed by many groans every time it is brought back up, something we still kind of need to work on (in our dependency of God).
Okay wait this just reminded me of an old story back in Argentina that I need to share too. Previously I had mentioned of financial woes within our group. In Argentina we were at the point that we owed, as a group, another $2000 USD. This was due to miscommunication and flight fees being much higher than quoted. We really had to come in prayer together over this, many of us too afraid to tell our supporters back home, afraid of what they might think. During our week in Argentina, our director Samuel came down for a pastoral visit which was very much needed at the time. It was exactly the boost our group needed to reconnect itself. The Sunday we came together for a serious time of prayer over our financial needs and when it was time to share what we had heard, there were very few who had anything to share. Samuel put it out point blank that it seemed there were issues within our group (which was true) that were blocking any God movement. We needed to repent of any resentments or angers against people within the group or anything that you felt might be blocking you and after awhile we would regroup and try again. This was soooo important for our group and was really needed as when we came back together and prayed again we had much more release. Many of us felt that we were being told to wait on God, that he would provide for us but he also wanted us to come together more and to keep our financial needs front and centre in our prayer time. Well, the very next morning at worship time, Celina announced that over night we had received nearly all of it and only needed $200 more!!! God is amazing. He just granted us our own personal huge miracle. I was blown away. This was such an amazing time.
Okay so now you kind of have a better idea as to why money is a fun issue in our group and why a little amount like $25/person still is an issue - though obviously it shouldn't be when God continues to show his faithfulness to us by providing large amounts. But it can be still stressful when you know there are people in the group who litterly have no money left. I myself at the time had only $22USD of the 25 but was able to get another $3 thankfully. However, that was the last of my USD on hand.
So Friday morning, four of us (Sarah, Jessica, Susanna and myself) where on the first flight, leaving Venezuela (Caracas), heading back to Barbados, as the Saturday flight had been to full to allow all of us to travel together. This became evident that once again this was God looking out for our group.
Jesus and Cesar took us through the subway to the nearest taxi airport bus and then said goodbye. I had a little bit of Boliavares left and obviously didn't need them and felt that I wanted to bless them as they had been so special to us in our time in Venezuela and so I split what I had between the two of them. Off we went to the airport. We left the base at 6am for our 9:10am flight and arrived at the airport just before 7am and headed to check-in. Everything seemed to be going well, I had a nice check-in guy who spoke English relatively okay. My bag headed off down the ramp as did Sarah's and then it hit...so there is a $15USD check-in fee....WHAT!!!??? SERIOUS??!! I'm sorry but we have NO MONEY. They didn't think we were serious but we explained we had been traveling for 2 1/2 months and were at the end of our travels and had nothing left, just a few Bolivares, a couple of USD and a little bit of Argentinian money. The gentleman helping me said he could waver the $15 fee but that there was also an airport tax that we HAD to pay as they give you a bar code that lets you through a gate and that was a lovely $162.50 Bolivares!! We thought we were going faint. We didn't know what to do. We counted up the little we had which totalled enough for 2 people for the $15 fee and that was it. Unfortunately, the second man helping us was not so keen on wavering the first fee as it ended up sounding that it would come out of their paycheck (and to be honest I can understand that but can still hope). As my bag and Sarahs bags were gone they held Susanna and Jess's as collateral until we could pay the $100 Bs we needed more at check-in. So off went Sarah and Jess to find an ATM. While they were gone God sent us an angel who overheard part of our dilemma and ever so kindly all of a sudden handed us $200 Bs! "Here at least one of you will be able to get through." I nearly started to cry there I was so moved. So Susanna and I paid the man and then went out to wait for the other two in a better spot to figure out how we could get the money still for the airport tax.
Once we reconnected we tried to see if we could pay by Debit or by Credit Card at the window but they would not accept either. They told us of Intel-cambio where we could get money from so off we ran - as time was seriously starting to tick away here, already having approached the boarding time of 8am). We arrived there and Jess tried to use her travelers checks that she had never been able to get rid of (take note, travelers checks are the dumbest idea ever, don't use them). She started to fill out the first one as they would accept them, but apparently they are extremely picky. Jess filled out the date the Canadian way: month/day/year. Well that wasn't right, its day/month/year in S. America so they wouldn't take the check. Ahhh. So she grabbed another one (each equalling $100 USD) and filled it out the correct way but again they wouldn't take it because she had used (/) in between the dates as opposed to (-)!! Are you kidding me! At this point there was some frustration within part of the group.
We then ran to ATMs again to try and get money but each of us used our cards to no success. The machines kept cancelling the transactions. We were now down to 30 min before our flight was to leave! We were going to try another bank, when I thought I would go back to that Intel-Cambio and try my Mastercard which finally was successful. Thank you Lord! However, this was not a quick process either and took 20 min of the 30 that we had!! Plus some lovely fees that you normally wouldn't put up with but really didn't have much choice at this point.
We sent Jess and Susanna off to wait in the airport tax line so we would have no wait once we got there. Finally we received the $450 Bs that we still needed and ran to meet the other two. As we were running, I was thinking wow, I am so thankful that I actually still have strength in my legs to move so quickly....We got to the window paid our fee, ran to the gate (imagine four blondes running along in a line, so funny), used the bar code to get through, put our carry-on luggage through the machine and just as we were about to wak through the security door for ourselves, that's when it hit me. OH NOOOOOO, SARAHHHHH, OH SH--! I left my bag at the money place! Up to this point I had been amazingly calm through everything, trusting that God would hold our plane for us and that in the end it would all work out fine, but at this point, this was when I crashed and my heart just sunk. I ran back to the first gate and begged to be let out trying to communicate in little Spanish and hand gestures. Jumped over the gate and booked it back to the money place, except I ran to the stair that were past the place not realizing and when I got up to the second floor where it was, in my panic I couldn't figure it out and didn't know where it was. At this point I had 5 min! Finally God turned me around and I found my bag and booked it back. Sarah had waited for me and we ran to the immigration line that we still had to go through and with our Por favour (please please) we cut right to the front of the line as had the other two done as well. When we came out and rounded the corner we saw Jess and Susanna and then recognized the security guy that happened to be running with them now, was the same guy who had given us the hard time at the check-in. He was grabbing our tickets as we ran, ripping them and handing them back to us and getting us through the door and out to the plane. They had kept our bags off the plane and had noticed we were still not there and he (and of course God) had held the plane for us and as we got to the stairs to go up they said, "Okay now we put your bags on".
We got to our seats and collapsed. We were all shaking, my hand was quivering so much and part of me just wanted to release in tears but I just let a few out and took some big breathes. I was SO thirsty from all the running, so I grabbed my water bottle and took a drink then handed it to the others as I figured they had to be thirsty as well. All of a sudden, Jess goes...hey, how did you get the liquids through security? At that point we broke out in hysterical laughter, releasing our major amount of tension and adrenaline.
God then gave Jess and I our own personal little piece. That morning as we prepared to go, right beside the base is a donut shop and as we are both Canadians we were drooling and commenting on how we couldn't wait to have a Boston cream or a Honey cruller from Tim Hortons when we got back home. Well would you believe our snack on the flight was a...DONUT!!! and it was good :) Also the flight attendant, noticing how thirst we were, gave us 3 juice boxes in the duration of the flight! So nice!!
So that is officially my second most stressful traveling experience in my life (the first was my missions trip to Hungary nearly 10 years ago, when we missed our connecting flight from Newark to Frankfurt and had to beg for them to put our group of seven on another plane). I am so thankful though to Gods faithfulness and for watching over us and for sending us that angel.
I know now that we were meant to go as a small group the day before because had we been the whole group of 17, there is no way we would have made our flight because most of us did not have the money on hand. This way we were able to get back home and were able to connect with them and let them know so they could get the money before going to the airport. Thank you Lord for watching over our group right to the end.
So now tomorrow we start our final week of the lecture phase, entitled 'debriefing and re-entry week'. Tuesday Mom and Dad arrive, I am SOO EXCITED to see them again and be able to show them around my second home and to introduce them to my family here. Friday is our graduation and I am back on the following Wednesday to see all you wonderful friends, family and supporters!!
But don't leave yet, I plan on writing a number of stories over the week that I am back. I have so much to share with you still.
Okay take care! Love!!
